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13X 4345 

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 
















































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GUIDE 


FOR 



ESPECIALLY FOR THOSE 


WHO EARN THEIR OWN LIVING. 


BY 


J. 


THE REV. GEORGE DESIION, 

MISSIONARY PRIEST. 





D. & J. SADLIER & CO., 31 BARCLAY STREET. 

BOSTON: —128 FEDERAL STREET. 

MONTREAL \ —COR. OF NOTEE DAME AND ST. EEANCI3 XAVIER 9T6. 

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1 8 G 3 . 






V 


Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1S63, 

By D. & J. SADLIER & CO., 

In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States for the 
Southern District of New York. 



EDWARD 0. JENKINS, 
printer anh .Sterrotspcr, 
No. 20 North William St. 


LC Control Number 



tmp96 033845 













PREFACE. 


In the course of my work as a missionary 
priest, for many years past, I have been brought 
in contact with many thousands of all classes of 
the community. 

Among them all, none have interested and en¬ 
couraged me more than the girls who live out, or 
earn their living by their own hard labor. 

I have often admired the beautiful examples 
of Christian virtue and character I have found 
among them ; their heroic patience and content¬ 
ment with their lot; the innocence and purity 
of their lives; their noble self-denial and dis¬ 
interestedness, and the singleness of mind with 
which they look above this world and aspire to 
perfect themselves in the love of God. 

This has led me to wish to do something for 
them ; to contribute what little I could to lay a 



IV 


PREFACE. 


solid foundation in some, and to increase in 
others what has been already well begun, so 
that they become beautiful and fragrant flowers 
in the garden of the Lord. 

I feel that my work will not be in vain, for 
the hearts of these good girls are a good soil, 
which, as Scripture says, receives the seed of 
the Word with thankfulness, and produces abun¬ 
dant fruit. 

My work lias been a pleasant one, and I have 
striven to keep but one thing in view, and that 
is, to do as much good as possible. 

If the good girls, for whom I have written it, 
find pleasure and profit in it, my whole purpose 
will have been accomplished. 

St. Paul’s, 59th Street, 

Feast of St. Teresa , 

October 15 t7i, 1863. * 


CONTENTS 


« 


CHAPTER PAGE 

I. — A Good Girl has reason to be satisfied with 

her Condition in Life. 9 

II.—Advantages of a Life of Labor. 13 

III. —Advantages of a Life of Humiliation and Sub¬ 

jection. 15 

IV. —Example of Saint Isidora. 20 

V. — A Good Girl has no need to be Sad because of 

HER WANT OF OPPORTUNITY TO ACQUIRE WORLDLY 

Knowledge. 24 

VI.—Necessity of a Deep ani\ Settled Principle to 

Cling Closely *to God. 28 

VII. — How to Commence to Ground this Principle in 

the Heart. 32 

VIII. — How to Increase in the Love of God, or, of 

Prayer in General. 36 

IX. —Daily Exercises of Prayer. Morning Prayer, 40 

X.—Continuation. 42 

XI.—Renewal of Good Intention. 44 

XII. —Of Prayer during the Day. 48 

XIII. —Of Night Prayers. 51 

XIV. —Objections Answered. 54 

(5) 
















VI 


CONTENTS, 


CHAPTER PAGE 

XV. —Advantage of Spending Sunday Well . 58 

XVI. —Of Working on Sunday . Cl 

XVII.—Ox Attendance at Mass. Excuses for neg¬ 
lecting it. 64 

XVIII.—Excuses for not Attending Mass. 70 

XIX. —How to Assist at Mass . 75 

XX. —Of Reading Good Books. %& 

XXI. — Of Reading the Bible . 81 

XXII.—Continuation. 85 

XXIII.—How to Read the Bible. 89 

XXIV. —Of other Good Books. 92 

XXV. —On the Nature of the Sacraments. 95 

XXVI.—Confession a Remedy for Sin. 98 

XXVII.—Continuation. 102 

XXVIII.—We must not put off the Use of this 

Remedy .. 104 

XXIX. —Example of Saint Mary of Egypt. 107 

XXX. —Scruples of the Good concerning Confession, 111 

XXXI.—Scruples concerning Contrition. 115 

XXXII.—We must have the Spirit of Penance. 118 

XXXIII. —What the Holy Communion is . 121 

XXXIV.—Effects of Communion. 126 

XXXV.—Preparation for Communion. 129 

XXXVI.—Behavior at and after Communion. 134 

XXXVII.—How Often should One Receive Communion, 137 

XXXVIII.—On special Devotions. 141 

XXXIX.—Of Devotion to tiie Blessed Sacrament.... 145 
XL.—On Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, 150 

XLI. —Devotion to Saints. 154 

XLII. —True Idea of Service. 158 


























CONTENTS. Vll 

CHAPTER PAGE 

XLIII.—True Idea of Service. How to correspond 

to it. "161 

XLIV.—True Idea of Service. Examples. 164 

XLV.—On the Choice of a Place. 168 

XLYI.—Of Master and Servant. 173 

XLVII.—Continuation. Examples. 177 

XLVIII.—Continuation. Master and Servant. 183 

XLIX.—Doctrine of Scripture on this Subject. 186 

L.—Of Diligence in Service. 188 

LI.—Advantages of Diligence. 193 

LII.—On Honesty at Service. 198 

LIII.—Continuation. 203 

LIY.—Advantages of Honesty. 206 

LY.—Different Kinds of Dishonesty. Wasteful¬ 
ness. 209 

LYI.—Dishonesty on the Pretext of Charity. 212 

LYII.—Dishonesty arising from Gluttony. 215 

LYIII.—DisnoNESTY ox the Pretext of Insufficient 

Wages. 220 

LIX.—Co-operation in Dishonesty. 223 

LX.—Practical Directions in this matter. 228 

LXI.—Ox Spying and Listening. 231 

LXII.—Obligation of Secrecy. 234 

LXIII.—On Holy Purity. 239 

LXIY.—On Evil Thoughts. 244 

LXY.—Custody of the Eyes. 247 

LXVI.—Of Evil Conversations. 250 

LXYII.—Of Modesty in Dress. 254 

LXVIII.—Advantages of Modesty in Dress. 257 

LXIX.—Of Modesty in Dress. Continuation. 263 





























Vlll 


CONTENTS, 


CHAPTER PACE 

LXX.—Ox Truthfulness. 268 

LXXI. —Scripture on Lying. 271 

LXXII. —The Devil’s Pretexts for Lying. 274 

LXXIII. —Examples of Truthfulness. 280 

LXXIY.— Whether to Marry or not . 283 

LXXY. —Continuation. 287 

LXXVI. —Great Need of Prudence. 291 

LXXYII. —What Intimacies to Form. 293 

LXXYIII. —Of Mixed Marriages. 297 

LXXIX. —Behavior during Courtship. 300 

LXXX. —Continuation. 303 

LXXXL —The Right Idea of Married Life. 311 

LXXXII. —Of the Marriage Ceremony. 315 

LXXXIII. — How to Behave in Sickness. Conclusion_ 318 















CHAPTER I. 


A GOOD GIRL HAS REASON TO BE SATISFIED WITH 
HER CONDITION IN LIFE. 

“ Why was I not born a lady?” says the poor 
girl who has to work hard for a living. “ There 
are the ladies, with little or nothing to do, amus¬ 
ing themselves all day, and enjoying all the good 
things of life, while poor I must drudge the 
whole blessed day, from early morning till late 
at night, for a living, and a scant one at that. I 
wish the Almighty had placed me in some better 
condition of life than the one I am in! ” 

My good girl, you who talk in that way, you 
do not think what you are saying. Instead of 
complaining of the good God, if your eyes could 
only be opened to see things as they really are, 
your heart would leap for joy, and your tongue 

(*) 


10 


REASONS TO BE SATISFIED. 


would praise Him that you have not been made 
a lady, or anything, but just what you are. For 
the truth is, your condition of life is one of the 
very best in which God could place you, and it is 
a great privilege for you to be in it rather than 
in any other. 

Let us look into it, and see how this is. I 
dare say you remember that among almost the 
first words of the little catechism, the question 
is asked : “ For what were we created ? ” The 
answer to it is: “ To learn to serve and love 
God in this world in order that we may be 
happy forever with Him in the next.” Ah, this 
lets us into the whole secret! We were not 
created to be rich, to live without work, to live 
in fine houses, and wear fine clothes, and ride in 
elegant coaches, and have, what folks are apt to 
call, a fine time of it. No, it was for nothing of 
all this, but to learn to love and serve God dur¬ 
ing this life, in order to earn heaven, and pre¬ 
pare ourselves to be happy forever with God. 

This is the reason why the rich are so often 
unhappy, in spite of all their money and splendor. 
They are just living for riches and pleasure, 
instead of to please God, and they cannot find 
any real satisfaction in such a life. God will 
never let us have any real happiness unless we 
live in order to please and love Him. 


REASONS TO BE SATISFIED. 


11 


It is true, a rich man or woman can serve 
God and he happy, but it is difficult, for riches 
and honors and pleasures steal away the heart, 
and cause Him to be forgotten. And when 
God is forgotten what enjoyment can there be 
of life? 

What is over and above our necessary and 
suitable clothing will bring but little satisfaction. 
It only feeds an idle vanity, destroys content¬ 
ment, and fills us with desires for a thousand 
things that never satisfy us when they are 
supplied. 

We are always the worse for it when we eat 
or drink much more than is necessary for us ; 
we lose our appetite, our health and our strength, 
so that the body becomes a burden, and life a 
misery. 

All the money or honor in the world cannot 
ensure health or contentment of mind. 

Then there is death, in the midst of our earthly 
enjoyments, always staring us in the face. Our 
friends are cut down around us, and we know 
not the day or the hour when our turn will come. 
But we know very well that when it does come, 
we must be torn away, whether we will or no, 
from everything in this world which we have 
set our hearts upon. Can we have any enjoy¬ 
ment in such a life as we have here, unless it be 


12 


REASONS TO BE SATISFIED. 


grounded on peace with God ? unless we carry 
out the blessed intentions which God had in 
creating us, namely, that we should love and 
serve Him ? 

And, then, think of that vast eternity which 
stretches away beyond, after this life is over. 
How small and mean everything here is in com¬ 
parison with it! What difference will it make to 
us when we are once in the presence of God, 
clothed with glory and honor, with white gar¬ 
ments, and the palm of victory in our hands, with 
no sorrows, sighs, or tears to be feared any more 
forever ;—what difference will it make whether 
we had a little more or a little less on this 
earth ? Why, this whole life will seem a small 
speck in the grand ocean of eternity. 

In short, in considering any state or condition, 
the principal thing is, to take into account the 
advantages it holds out for securing a holy and 
pious life, so that we may come safe through all 
the trials and temptations of this world to our 
only true home in heaven. 

In this view, I do not know any among the, 
ordinary conditions of life so good and desirable 
as that of a life of service or of daily labor. 


ADVANTAGES OF LABOR. 


13 


CHAPTER II. 

ADVANTAGES OF A LIFE OF LABOR. 

A life of labor lias always been considered, 
by spiritual persons, most favorable to the soul. 
To have nothing which we are obliged to do 
may seem very fine to our worldliness and love 
of ease, but it is most dangerous. You know 
the old saying: “ The devil finds work enough 
for idle hands to do.” It is most true. Idleness 
opens the door for the worst temptations. 

Suppose you had pretty much all your time to 
do what you pleased with, how likely it is that 
a great part of it would be misused! Habits of 
idleness would be formed, your time would hang 
heavy on your hands, and you would not know 
what to do. You would seek for amusement; 
you would soon be altogether taken up with it,. 
and your whole life would become one given up 
to the world and to wickedness. You would 
indeed stand a great chance of going straight 
down to perdition. 

The labor of the hands is, then, a source of 
blessing. It furnishes a great help to spending 
life in innocence. It fills up our time with. 

2 


14 


ADVANTAGES OF LABOR. 


honest industry, while it leaves the soul free to 
raise itself from time to time to God. The 
labor of the hands is not like that of the head. 
Head work fills the mind, and takes up its 
attention, but hand work leaves the mind in a 
great measure free. 

St. Anthony was taught this by an angel from 
heaven. One day when he felt tired by unin¬ 
terrupted prefer, and unable to continue it, he 
grieved over it before the Lord, and begged to 
be instructed how to get over this trouble, which 
was a hindrance to his salvation. After his 
prayer he went out of his cell, and saw a person, 
the exact image of himself, seated at work mak¬ 
ing mats out of palm leaves. The saint per¬ 
ceived it was an angel who took this form 
and acted in this manner to make him under¬ 
stand how, by going from work to prayer, and 
from prayer to work, he could cheerfully and 
surely work out his salvation. 

The old hermits of the desert all understood 
this. They did not dare to be idle, but made 
baskets, cultivated the ground, spent all their 
time in labor or prayer, and so worked out 
their salvation in the utmost security. 

We cannot have the life of these old hermits 
of the desert over again nowadays, but, outside 
the walls of the convent, whose life is most 


ADVANTAGES OP HUMILIATION. 


15 


like theirs? That of the good girl who earns 
her own living at service, or at some other hon¬ 
est employment. She it is who enjoys, more 
than any others that I know of, the advantages 
which these old saints coveted so much—who 
can spend her days in work and prayer, and thus 
keep off the evil one, and work out her salvation 
with comparative ease. 

Do not then complain of labor, but rejoice, and 
thank God that He has given you not a life of 
idleness, but honest and continual labor. It is 
a very great favor of His love, as you will see, 
when this body of the flesh falls away, and you 
stand on the other side of eternity. 


CHAPTER III. 

ADVANTAGES OP A LIFE OF HUMILIATION AND 
SUBJECTION. 

“ Ah ! but you do not consider what it is to be 
a servant; to have a master or a mistress, and 
to be ordered about; to be looked down upon 
as an inferior; to be treated with contempt: all 



16 


ADVANTAGES OF HUMILIATION. 


those things that belong to a life of service! 
Surely it is more than one can put up with! And 
remember it is these very things that make the 
life of a servant different from every other. 
What advantage can there be in all this ? ” 

I have taken all these things into the account, 
and yet I say, that in the view of religion, in the 
view of faith, in the view of Jesus Christ our 
Saviour, it is that very humility of your state, 
that very subjection, those very insults, and all 
that you are liable to suffer, which make the 
highest privilege of your condition. These very 
things are precious diamonds and pearls, which 
the Lord gives to you, and not to others. Why, 
this is the very money put in your hands with 
which you can buy your salvation ! Only take 
these things from the hands of God with patience 
and thankfulness, and nothing more is required 
of you. 

In this view, how much harder is the lot of 
your masters and mistresses than yours! They 
must be humble and poor in spirit; they must 
put away pride and haughtiness, or they cannot 
get through the gate of heaven. “ He that ex- 
alteth himself shall be humbled/ 7 St. Luke xiv. 
11. Think how hard this must be, surrounded as 
they are by all those things that nourish and 
increase pride. 


ADVANTAGES OF HUMILIATION. 


17 


Suppose you were in their place, do you think 
you would be humble and lowly before God; 
gentle and kind to those below you; not taken 
up and engrossed with riches ; in a word, poor in 
spirit? I am afraid not. It seems to me it 
would be very difficult, and so it seemed to our 
Lord when He thought over it, for He ex¬ 
claimed, “ How hard it is for the rich to enter 
the kingdom of God! 77 St. Mark x. 23. 

Be thankful, then, instead of repining, and say, 
u No, Lord, I ask no change ; it is better for me 
just as I am. I am humbled in the sight of men, 
but blessed in Thine. 77 

There is a beautiful passage of Scripture which 
in a few words confirms all that I have said: 
“ But God hath chosen the foolish things of the 
world that He may confound the wise ; and the 
weak things hath God chosen that He may con¬ 
found the strong; and the mean things and 
those that are contemptible hath God chosen. 77 
1 Cor. i. 27, 28. 

How beautiful! What the world esteems 
foolish, and weak, and mean, and contemptible, 
that is just what God has chosen, what He re¬ 
gards with peculiar favor, what He gives his 
blessing to, and makes the road to everlasting 
life. 

Moreover, our Lord shows us this by His own 


18 


ADVANTAGES OF HUMILIATION. 


example. Instead of coming into the world 
rich and noble, He came poor and despised. In¬ 
stead of coming to be waited upon, He came to 
wait on others. They used to say of Him: 
“ Who is that ? only the son of Joseph, the car¬ 
penter/ 7 They remembered always how they 
had seen Him carry boards, and help Joseph at 
the carpenter 7 s trade. 

St. Paul says we ought to think in this respect 
as Jesus Christ did: “ For let this mind be in 
you which was also in Christ Jesus ; who, being 
in the form of God, thought it no robbery Him¬ 
self to be equal to God : but debased Himself, 
taking the form of a servant/ 7 Phil. ii. 5, 6, 7. 
Above all other names, you see, he chooses to be 
called by the name of “ servant/ 7 

In the Scripture, the life of service is taken 
under the special protection of the Lord. What¬ 
ever you do for an earthly master is considered by 
Him as being done for Himself. “ Whatever ye 
do, do it from the heart, as to the Lord, and not 
to men: knowing that ye shall receive of the 
Lord the reward of inheritance/ 7 Col. iii. 
23, 24. 

What a privilege, what dignity and honor this 
throws around your state of life! When I think 
of it, I cannot help envying the good girl at ser¬ 
vice all the numerous advantages she enjoys; 


ADVANTAGES OF HUMILIATION. 


19 


her opportunity for retirement and prayer; her 
opportunity for patience and humility which will 
make her so much like Jesus Christ, and so dear to 
Him; her opportunity of acquiring such rich 
merits by fidelity and good intention in her em¬ 
ployments ; the safety and peacefulness of her 
life ; and all the good she will do to others by 
the force of her modest and holy example. 

How well the saints understood this! St. 
Serapion sold himself twice in succession to the 
lowest comedians, and served them in the meanest 
offices, until by his humble example he converted 
them into fervent Christians. St. Alexius, of a 
noble Roman family, fled away from his father's 
house, and after remaining many years, until en¬ 
tirely forgotten, returned and lived seventeen 
years, as a beggar, dependent on the charity of 
his own father, who only found out who he was by 
a writing found upon him after his death. But I 
have found a most beautiful example, which 
throws light on the whole matter, and which I 
will relate more at length. 


20 


EXAMPLE OF ST. ISIDORA. 


CHAPTER IV. 

EXAMPLE OF SAINT ISIDORA. 

This holy virgin lived in the Convent of Ta- 
benna in Egypt. She was one of a community 
of four hundred sisters. Such was her love of 
humiliation and contempt that she courted every 
way and opportunity of abasing herself. 

But, as her intention was entirely good, she 
took care that her follies should all be of an 
innocent character. She wrapped an old rag 
around her head, went bare-foot, and instead of 
sitting down at the table like the others, she ate 
the crumbs which she collected with a sponge, 
and the scrapings of the dishes. 

All the time, she worked at the hardest and 
lowest work, as if she had been the vilest slave, 
and no one ever saw her idle a moment. 

Some of the sisters treated her harshly when¬ 
ever they met her, thinking her to be insane, and 
others avoided her because they thought her 
possessed of the devil; but the humble Isidora 
never made the least complaint. On the con¬ 
trary, the more ill-usage she got, the more she 
seemed to be pleased and satisfied. 


EXAMPLE OF ST. ISIDORA. 


21 


She exercised herself in this way a long time, 
in what we may call the wise folly of the cross, 
until God, who exalts the humble, was pleased to 
manifest her heroic sanctity to a great servant 
of His, named Pytirion, who had lived many 
years in the exercise of constant prayer and 
good works. 

An angel appeared to him in the desert where 
he lived, and told him not to think too highly of 
himself on account of his devotion and good 
works ; that if he would go to the monastery of 
women at Tabenna, he would find there a person 
much superior to himself. This was a woman 
who, being an object of ridicule, and treated 
with contempt, never showed the least impatience, 
but kept her heart constantly united to God, 
serving her sisters with a wonderful exactness 
and sweetness, while he, although he never left 
the desert, allowed his imagination sometimes to 
run over the whole world. 

This venerable old man then went to the 
monastery, where he was well known by reputa¬ 
tion, and asked the Superior to have all her re¬ 
ligious called together, as he had a special reason 
for wishing to see them.. His request was 
granted, and they all came with the exception of 
the very one we have been speaking about. 
Pytirion looked at them all attentively, but he did 


22 


EXAMPLE OF ST. ISIDORA. 


not discover the one he looked for. “ Are all 
here ?” said he. “ Yes,” was the answer, “ all of 
us.” “ You must be mistaken,” said he, “ for I 
do not see the one that God manifested to me.” 

“ Oh!” said they, “ there is another, but she is 
only a poor, crazy thing, who works in the 
kitchen.” “ Bring her here,” said Pytirion, 
“ and let me speak with her.” But she seemed 
to have a foresight of what was to happen, and 
was so loth to come that they had almost to drag 
her along, saying that it was Pytirion that wished 
to speak with her. 

As soon as she appeared, the saint saw in her 
the marks of holiness that the angel had pointed 
out, and filled with respect he fell on his knees, 
and begged her blessing, calling her “ Amina,” a 
name only applied to the spiritual mothers of the 
monastery. She, on her part, fell on her knees 
and humbly begged his blessing, thinking him 
superior to herself, and her master in goodness. 

All the religious were filled with astonishment 
at such a sight. A venerable old man on his 
knees, before one whom they considered a poor, 
crazy creature ; they could not believe their eyes. 
“ Father!” they cried, “ what makes } r ou do so ? 
Don’t you know she is only a fool ?” “ You are 
the fools,” said Pytirion. “ She is better than 
you, and better than I. She is a true mother in 


EXAMPLE OF ST. ISIDORA. 


23 


holiness, and would to God that at the day of 
judgment I may appear as loaded with merit as 
she is.” 

At this answer they saw how much they had 
been deceived, and were touched to the heart, 
and confessed humbly all the abuse and harsh 
treatment they had inflicted upon her. Pytirion 
prayed for them, had a long conversation with 
the humble Isidora, and went away. 

Finding herself after this the object of great 
respect and veneration on the part of the good 
sisters, she began to feel uneasy. She knew that 
labor and contempt were much better for her 
soul, and made her dearer to God. She couldr 
not endure to be thought much of, so she soon 
left the place and went off where she was un¬ 
known, and where, no doubt, she lived the same 
kind of life of contempt and humility as before. 
Nothing more was ever heard of her, but God 
knows all her life, and will make it manifest at 
the last day. 


24 WORLDLY KNOWLEDGE NOT ESSENTIAL. 


CHAPTER Y. 

A GOOD GIRL HAS NO NEED TO BE SAD BECAUSE 

OF HER WANT OF OPPORTUNITY TO ACQUIRE 

WORLDLY KNOWLEDGE. 

“ But, father, how can a poor, ignorant girl like 
myself be said to be in a good condition of life ? 
I have never had an opportunity to get much 
learning, and can barely read a little, and that 
with a good deal of difficulty. This, you must 
confess, is a great hardship, and it seems to me to 
stand in the way of leading a good life and 
getting to heaven, which you say is the very 
thing we all live for. What have you got to say 
to that ?” 

I say that, on the one hand, true wisdom 
does not consist in human science or knowledge, 
or in knowing a great variety of things, and on 
the other, that the want of such knowledge does 
not make us ignorant. 

If you know a few things, such as the truths 
contained in the Apostles’ Creed, namely, that 
God has created you, to be happy forever, that 
Jesus Christ loved you so much as to lay down 
His life for you, and that the only true happiness 


I 


WORLDLY KNOWLEDGE NOT ESSENTIAL. 25 

is to be found in seeking first of all “ the kingdom 
of God and His justiceand if this knowledge 
has sunk deep in your heart, so that it comes first 
to mind and directs your actions to God, you are 
very wise and very learned. 

The man who lias read a thousand books, if 
these simple things have not sunk as deep in his 
mind as in yours, is not so wise and learned as 
you are. 

For example, a learned man hears a sermon, 
and understands the meaning of every word, and 
of all the ideas, so that he can talk about it to 
the wonder of every one, but nothing of it all has 
any practical effect on him. You, on the con¬ 
trary, scarcely get the full meaning of a single 
sentence, and all long and hard words fly over 
your head, but you notice some saying of our 
Lord Jesus Christ, perhaps this : “ Learn of me, 
for I am meek and humble of heart, and you 
shall find rest for your soul.” It makes a deep 
impression; you often recall it to mind ; it 
makes you mild and gentle, and more and more 
so during your whole life. 

You have understood that sermon better, and 
learned more than that man did. You have got 
more in that sentence, than whole piles of books 
contain. 

The Fathers of the desert, with only the Scrip- 
3 


26 WORLDLY KNOWLEDGE NOT ESSENTIAL. 

ture, or, may be, only some sentences of it that 
they knew by heart, but which they kept in 
mind, and felt deeply and acted out, became so 
wise and prudent, that learned men took long 
journeys on purpose to get their advice on most 
important affairs. They spoke with such truth 
and force that their words penetrated the hearts 
of thousands who came to listen to them. 

Knowledge of worldly things often fills the 
soul with so many distracting ideas that it is dif¬ 
ficult to take in the meaning of divine things. 
“Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth.” 
1 Cor. viii. 1. 

The good girl, who really desires to love God, 
will be taught by God himself how to do it. 
She will hear the principles of wisdom taught 
in the church, and from the lips of others, and 
God will constantly whisper them to her heart, 
so that she will become very wise. 

So Thomas a Kempis, speaking in the person 
of our Lord, says : “I am the one who teaches 
how to despise worldly things; to be tired of 
that which must pass away ; to seek that which 
is eternal; to be wise in regard to eternal 
things ; to fly from honors; to endure scandals 
without sin ; to make one put all his hope in Me, 
to desire nothing that does not lead to Me ; and 
to love Me in preference to everything else.” 


WORLDLY KNOWLEDGE NOT ESSENTIAL. 27 

Sublime wisdom! What is all knowledge of 
all science compared to that ? God, “ who re- 
sisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the hum¬ 
ble,” will give you this wisdom, if you desire it. 
Improve what opportunities you have for learn¬ 
ing to read and acquiring useful knowledge ; but 
remember that the want of learning and oppor¬ 
tunity will not stand in your way if you are 
truly desirous to be united to God. He can in 
abundance make up for all such deficiency, and 
He will do so, for He is goodness and love 
itself. 

Well, then, on all accounts, you see that your 
condition in life is a most advantageous one. I 
hope you will consider it so, and never allow 
yourself to murmur at it. Be full of joy and 
thankfulness, and determine by a good life to get 
from it all the* advantages that the Saviour of 
the world has intended it should afford you. 

In the following chapters we will consider 
more particularly how to live this good life and 
gain these eternal rewards. 


28 


NECESSITY OF PRINCIPLE. 


CHAPTER VI. 

NECESSITY OF A DEEP AND SETTLED PRINCIPLE TO 
CLING CLOSELY TO GOD. 

All the advantage, all the good of a life of 
service depends on your being faithful. Two 
girls may be in equally good situations, yet one 
will be contented and happy and growing better 
every day, while the other will be always com¬ 
plaining and fretting, making herself and every¬ 
body else unhappy, and getting more and more 
wicked. Let us look into it and see the reason 
of all this difference. 

These two girls are acting on very different 
principles. One looks first at this world in 
everything. Her mind is taken up with the idea 
of enjoying all the pleasure she can now. She is 
all the time studying the ease and comfort of the 
present moment. As soon as any desire rises up 
in her heart she allows herself to be completely 
carried away by it, and God and religion have to 
stand in the background. 

The other is in the habit of looking away from 
this world, and looking first at God. The ques¬ 
tion with her is : Is it right ? is it good for my 


NECESSITY OF PRINCIPLE. 


29 


soul ? and not, How do I like it ? She takes a 
calm and holy pleasure in denying herself what 
is wrong, or not good for her, because she knows 
that her soul is united more closely to God, her 
only real good, by so doing. 

This is the reason of all the difference in their 
lives—why one is so happy and good, the other 
so unhappy and sinful—and this shows the neces¬ 
sity of having a right principle of conduct, a 
principle good enough, and broad enough, and 
strong enough to regulate all the actions of our 
life. 

We can not do better than lay down some 
such principle. St. Paul had such a ruling prin¬ 
ciple. He says : “ I do not live any longer, but 
it is Christ that lives in me.” Gal. ii. 20. He 
had Christ so firmly seated in his mind ; he had 
it so much at heart to please Him, that he was 
able to say that he lived no longer for himself, 
but for Christ. Here was his fixed principle: 
he would no longer live for himself, but for Jesus 
Christ. No doubt he used to say to himself, on 
all occasions, “ Remember, Paul, you are no longer 
to live for yourself, but for Christ; ” and it was 
by acting on this principle that he arrived at 
such a high state of perfection. 

In the same way, if you want to live a good 
life, you must take care to have some such prin- 
3 * 


30 


NECESSITY OF PRINCIPLE. 


ciple, which shall have the upper hand in your 
soul, and control your whole conduct. 

It is no matter how it is expressed—whether 
one says, “ It is better to lose the whole world 
than suffer the loss of the soul; ” or, “ My only real 
happiness consists in serving God; ” or, “ My meat 
and drink shall be to do the will of God ; ” or, 
“ I will look at God and his will first in all I do ; ” 
or, “ All my desire is to please God and save my 
soul ;” all these things mean really the same thing. 

They mean only what our Saviour meant, 
when He said, “ What shall it profit a man if he 
gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his 
soul,” or, “ What shall a man give in exchange 
for his soul.” St. Mark viii. 36. 

We need some such thought to sink deep in 
our minds, so deep that it may never be forgotten 
or lost sight of. Oh, my good girl, do not rest 
satisfied until you can repeat some such senti¬ 
ment with your whole soul. 

When St. Ignatius wanted to get St. Francis 
Xavier to devote himself to God, he did it in 
this way. He saw St. Francis, at that time a 
worldly young man, who thought little of his 
soul, quite frequently, and managed at every in¬ 
terview, to repeat the words : “ What shall it 
profit a man to gain the whole world if he lose 
his own soul.” By and by they began to have 


NECESSITY OF PRINCIPLE. 


31 


their effect, and St. Francis said to himself: 
“ Indeed, what will it profit me to gain all worldly 
distinction, if I am lost?” He saw things in 
their true light, devoted himself to God, heart 
and soul, and became a great saint. 

So, my dear good girl, you must strive to pos¬ 
sess and fill your soul with the grand principle 
of living for God, of wishing and striving to 
please and love God more and more. 

You must, as it were, keep your eyOs fixed on 
this mark, that the sight of it may always afford 
you strength and courage. 

Suppose a beautiful house, on a hill top, sur¬ 
rounded by pleasant groves and gardens of flow¬ 
ers, could be placed in your sight, with the 
promise that it should be yours after a term of 
faithful service. If you found that service get¬ 
ting tiresome, you would go to your window, 
look at that beautiful house, your courage would 
rise, and your labor would again become light¬ 
some and easy. 

So, have in your mind's eye the love of the 
Saviour, that great treasure which will make 
rich for all eternity, have it always ready to look 
at, and I will warrant, that all the troubles of 
life, and all the mischances that may happen to 
you, cannot hinder your soul from rejoicing at 
the glorious prospects before you. 


32 


HOW TO ESTABLISH PRINCIPLE. 


Would that we could always bear this in mind! 
But the trouble is, and I may say the only trouble 
is, that it is so often forgotten ; either lost sight 
of altogether, or for a long time, or seen only so 
dimly and indistinctly that it appears like a 
dream, and has little or no effect on the mind. 

Yes! It is very true ; this glorious prospect 
can always be kept in view if we will, and yet it 
is often, very often lost from sight. Now, I do 
not want you to lose sight of it, if others do. 
Your whole spiritual life, goodness, and happi¬ 
ness depend upon your not losing sight of it. 
Therefore, you must, like a prudent person, con¬ 
sider within yourself, what means you will take 
to keep it always in view. 


CHAPTER YII. 

HOW TO COMMENCE TO GROUND THIS PRINCIPLE 
IN THE HEART. 

In the first place, have you already got the 
idea of living chiefly for God and his love, 
strongly fixed in your mind ? If not, then you 
must begin by getting it so fixed. One cannot 
keep a thing unless one first gets it. 



HOW TO LAY THE FOUNDATION. 


33 


“ Oh, father! I fear I have not got it. Tell me 
how it is to be obtained.” 

I am glad you desire it, for the very desire is 
already a beginning. I will tell you, now, how 
to get well started, and whatever else I shall 
say throughout the book will be telling you how 
to go on with it. 

Well, I know no better way to get a good 
start, than to consider and think over these things 
in the mind, with many devout longings and 
desires after God. 

If the beautiful residence that I imagined just 
now were at a considerable distance from you, 
you would strain your eyes to see as much of it 
as you could; you would walk as near to it as 
possible, and if you had a spy-glass you would 
look at it through that. 

So, in the same way, be thinking in your mind 
of the great happiness, the immense importance, 
of fixing your soul in the love of Jesus. Be say¬ 
ing to yourself many times (it cannot be too 
many) : “ Oh, had I only the riches of the love of 
Christ.” Long for the love of Christ, and let 
the exclamation burst often from your lips : “ 0 
Jesus, Thy love is what I want: let all other 
love, and all the things of the world become irk¬ 
some and distasteful to me, so that only Thy love 
may rule my soul.” 


34 HOW TO LAY THE FOUNDATION. 

A few days of such holy longings and heart¬ 
felt wishes would not fail to light up and inflame 
your soul with an ardent desire to love God. 
This desire would make everything that tends to 
increase this love, pleasant and agreeable to you, 
no matter how unpleasant it might be otherwise. 

These impressions would be deepened if you 
would keep yourself quiet, and not allow other 
thoughts and distractions to occupy and dissipate 
your mind; if you would take care for a while 
to avoid much conversation, and from time to 
time retire, if you have the opportunity, to make 
a special business of this thinking, and simple, 
devout prayer to God. 

If you had any important business of this 
world on your mind, you would be glad to get in 
your room alone, that you might think it over 
without disturbance. In the same way, steal 
away by yourself to reflect upon this most im¬ 
portant of all things, quietly, and without dis¬ 
turbance. 

I can speak from experience as to the effect of 
such a course. I have seen many very careless and 
sinful people, living in the midst of distractions 
and occupations, who, being aroused by the Avord 
of God on a Mission or elsewhere, have by a few 
days of earnest desire and prayer become com¬ 
pletely changed. Their eyes have been opened, 


HOW TO LAY THE FOUNDATION. 


35 


so that their former sins have become perfectly 
hateful to them, and their hearts on fire with the 
love of God, so that the pleasures of the world 
were unable to give them satisfaction. I have 
seen them persevere after this beginning steadily, 
year after year, until death has put its seal on 
the blessed work. 

There is an old proverb that “ still water runs 
deep ; ” so I would advise you to keep your mind 
perfectly quiet and still and tranquil, for then 
God, the Holy Ghost, will deepen every good 
impression. The devil loves excitement, and 
hurry, and noise, and passionate feeling. Keep 
clear of these things, then, if you wish to advance 
in goodness. 

Even if you have been a great sinner, do not 
excite yourself too much. In that case, clear 
your conscience by a humble and sincere con¬ 
fession, in a calm and quiet way, without fretful¬ 
ness or disturbance of mind, and afterward there 
need never be any serious anxiety on the 
subject. 

Well, then, I will suppose the conscience at 
rest, and that the only uneasiness the soul has is, 
that it does not love God half as much as it de¬ 
sires to—a blessed uneasiness, which causes no 
trouble, but fills the mind with joy. 

We must strive to keep up this desire all the 


36 


OF PRAYER IN GENERAL. 


time, in peace, however, that the words of the 
Saviour may be fulfilled in us : “Blessed are they 
that hunger and thirst after justice , for they 
shall he filled St. Matt. v. 6. We must not 
merely hunger and thirst after justice (which is 
the same thing as the love of God), for a day or 
a week, and then allow the soul to get filled with 
the world, and its desires ; but manage in such 
a way that this blessed hunger and thirst may go 
on all the time increasing ; that it may take up 
the heart, so that no room may be left for any¬ 
thing evil; no relish for anything that does not 
increase this love, and no joy or happiness except 
it springs from this holy longing and desire that 
possesses the soul. 

Let us see how we may keep up and increase 
this holy fire after it is once lighted. 


CHAPTER VIII. 

HOW TO INCREASE IN THE LOVE OF GOD, OR OF 
PRAYER IN GENERAL. 

The way to do this is very plain and simple. 
There is nothing about it you cannot easily under- 



OF PRAYER IN GENERAL. 


37 


stand, nothing you cannot easily do. It will de¬ 
pend chiefly on one thing, whether you pray, and 
have regular daily habits of prayer . 

By prayer I do not mean going over the words 
written in a book. No : there may be prayer 
without the help of a book as well as with it. 
Prayer means to converse or talk with God, or, 
as some say, to raise the soul to God. 

But what shall we talk with Him about ? I 
will tell you. Faith teaches us who God is, and 
what he is, what He loves and wishes. It teaches 
that He knows all and can do all; that He loves 
us, that His love for us is very great, and that on 
account of this love He redeemed and purchased 
us with Hie own blood. It tells us that He came 
down from heaven and became one of us, lived 
here in poverty, and suffered and died on the 
cross, to open the gates of heaven to us. 

At the same time we know how miserable and 
poor we are of ourselves, and what constant need 
we have of help from God to get along, in body 
and soul. 

Do you not see, then, how many things we have 
to talk to God about; how much to think about 
before God ? Now this thinking of God, talking 
with him, this begging of him what you need, 
this is prayer; and you can easily see that this 
does not depend on book-learning. 

4 


38 


OF PRAYER IN GENERAL. 


Indeed, even if you can read, and are accus¬ 
tomed to use a book when you pray, I would 
advise you not to read over the prayers merely, 
or to go over a great many at a time, but to 
pause from time to time as you go along, and 
to think and talk with God as much as you 
can out of your heart and soul. 

One little prayer with a great deal of heart in 
it, a great deal of the simple talking of the heart 
with God, is worth more than whole pages of 
prayers, read off without heart from a book. 

Now let me give you an example of this. Ail 
old woman came to St. Teresa one day, who 
seemed to have something on her mind that made 
her feel very bad. “ What is the matter ? ” said 
the Saint. “ Oh dear! ” replied the old woman, 
“ I should like to pray, but I cannot. I can’t 
even get through the Lord’s prayer. I begin, 

‘ Our Father who art in heaven’—then I think, 
my Father in heaven! who is it that allows me 
to call Him Father ? The great and wonderful 
God! I think a long while in astonishment on 
this. I think what this name of father means ; 
what love it shows on his part; what a happiness 
it is to have such a father. I get running on so 
in my heart that it seems to me I never come to 
an end, and cannot, for the life of me, finish the 
prayer.” 


OF PRAYER IN GENERAL. 


39 


St. Teresa was full of admiration at the old 
woman’s account of her prayer, and told her to 
go on praying just that very way, for it was all 
right, and a great favor from God to be able to 
pray in that manner. 

The fact is, prayer is a very simple thing, and 
suited to all sorts and conditions of men—to the 
ignorant as well as to those that have learning ; 
to those who cannot read as well as to those who 
can; to children as well as to grown people. In¬ 
deed, the more simple, childlike, unaffected dispo¬ 
sitions you bring before God, the easier and bet¬ 
ter will be your prayer. 

So, I do not doubt that there are some good 
girls, with little or no learning of books, who, 
from their great wish to love God, pray easier, 
love prayer more, and practice it with more con¬ 
stancy and pleasure, than many of those who have 
learning and a great variety of books to help 
them. 

The hermits of the desert were the great 
models of prayer. They learned the great secret 
of praying all the time. And who were they ? ' 
Mostly, very unlearned and simple people, who, 
while they labored with their hands, in their 
own simple way talked in their hearts with their 
God and Saviour. 

Yflu see, then, you can pray, no matter what 


40 DAILY EXERCISES OF PRAYER. 

your condition may be. But in order to pray 
well you must pray regularly and constantly. 
If you have not a habit of praying, the chance 
is you will not pray much. It will slip little 
by little out of your mind, until you drop it 
entirely. 


CHAPTER IX. 

DAILY EXERCISES OF PRAYER. MORNING PRAYER. 

But you ask me, At what time should I pray ? 
I answer, Begin in the morning when you first 
get up. Then you are beginning a new day. A 
great number of things will take place during 
that day. It may turn out very much to your 
soul’s advantage, or it may be quite the other 
way. Then it is well early in the morning to 
make a good start for the day. If a good 
thought, a holy resolution, or a pious wish gets 
entrance first into your soul, it will go far 
to keep everything right during the day, and 
make it a fruitful one for the love of God and 
virtue. 

Then, as soon as you can after waking, try to 
think some pious thought, or make some pious 



MORNING PRAYER. 


41 


wish. For example: “ God keep me from sin 
this day,” or, “ May I pass this day so that I 
shall be more secure of heaven at night!” 

When you wash your face and hands, say, 
“ Wash me more and more from my sins.” When 
you dress, say, “ Clothe me with justice, with 
true virtues, that I may be pleasing in Thy 
sight.” Such practices are very good; they have 
a greater effect than they seem to have at the 
time, and prepare the' soul for prayer. 

When you are dressed, try to get a little time 
to kneel down and make a prayer to God, to 
recommend yourself to Him, to beg His protec¬ 
tion for the day, to make a good intention to 
please God in all you do or have to suffer. 

“ Oh! but I have no time for this. My work 
is so hard and so pressing. The breakfast must 
be got so early, or the children must be taken 
care of.” Well, I know this will often be the 
case, a poor girl will hardly have time, as they 
say, to turn around; but for all that, take a little 
time to pray. God will accept a little, under 
such circumstances, and give as much grace, as 
if you had spent more time, for He sees that you 
have trouble to give Him even that little. 

Get up five minutes earlier, and give Him that 
five minutes, and you cannot tell what a benefit 
it will draw down upon your soul. If you had. 
4 * 


42 DAILY EXERCISE OF PRAYER. 

a dear friend who was going away early in 
the morning, how gladly you would leave your 
bed half an hour earlier to bid him good-by. 
Why not then devote at least a few minutes of 
your sleeping time, if necessary, in order that 
you may talk with the Blessed Saviour, and get 
your heart bent and inclined to spend the whole 
day cheerfully and joyfully in His service. 


CHAPTER X. 

CONTINUATION. 

But sometimes one gets up, as they say, wrong 
foot foremost, that is, one feels so out of sorts, so 
cross and ill-natured, that one hardly knows 
what to do with one's self. At such times every¬ 
thing looks dark, and is likely to go wrong, and 
many a poor girl who has not the habit of turn¬ 
ing to God in prayer, is turned all that day to 
evil, to passion, to dark, and melancholy, and 
wicked thoughts. Many a one has lost a good 
place by simply giving way to such feelings. 

It is on such occasions, and they will happen 


l 



MORNING PRAYER. 


43 


to everyone sometimes, that we see the power 
and loveliness of the habit of offering one’s self 
with fervor to God in the morning. As soon as 
this dark and melancholy humor comes over one, 
this offering changes it all into a sweet and calm 
resignation to the holy will of God. 

The dreariness of the world inspires a longing 
for God and heaven, and all that would foster 
sin and evil habits of passion, now only draws 
and unites one more closely to God, according 
to Holy Scripture: “ All things work together 
for good to those who love the Lord.” Rom. 
viii. 28. 

Then never mind how you feel in the morning ; 
if you are out of sorts, if you feel ill-humored 
and cross, if you feel even wicked and inclined to 
evil, if praying is burdensome to you—go right 
on, all the same, cast yourself on God your 
Saviour ; tell Him that at least you desire to be 
good ; that you will not give way to these evil 
feelings, that you cannot help them; but you 
wish to be always mild, and good, and gentle, 
and ask the grace that you may go on, and do 
your duty, and imitate your Lord the same as if 
you felt ever so devout. 

I cannot tell you how much you gain by such 
a course. These are the very times when we 
triumph over the devil, when we are dearest to 


44 


RENEWAL OF GOOD INTENTION. 


God, advance the most in virtue, and go farthest 
in fixing the soul, so that it cannot be moved, 
in all that is good. Then, on no account, though 
your occupation may give you little time, omit 
this offering of yourself to God in the morning, 
and unite yourself to Him with fervor and with 
your whole soul. 

All this is not so easy at first because you are 
not accustomed to it, but it will soon become 
easy, and you will get so used to it and so fond 
of it, that you would as soon lose your breakfast 
as to omit it. If called away suddenly from 
3-our prayers, your heart would continue to speak 
to God, though your hands and feet were occu¬ 
pied with something else, and you would perhaps 
pray with more fervor than if you had plenty 
of time at your own disposal. 


CHAPTER XI. 

RENEWAL OF GOOD INTENTION. 

Well, now, suppose the day begun in this way, 
and that with a cheerful, and, so to speak, sweet¬ 
ened heart, you go about your daily labor or 



RENEWAL OP GOOD INTENTION. 


45 


occupation. Many a long hour stretches out 
before you, and many a distracting thing will 
happen before the day closes. What shall we 
do in order not to forget or lose sight of those 
pious morning resolutions ? 

The holy apostle St. Paul tells us, we must 
“ pray without ceasing.” And if we could carry 
out his precept we should surely be in no danger, 
since the Lord has promised, and His promise 
will surely be fulfilled: “ Ask and ye shall 
receive,” “ Call on me and I will help you.” 

But who can pray without ceasing when work 
must go on ? When that work takes up one’s 
time and attention completely, when one can 
hardly think of any thing else, sometimes, for 
a good while together ? That certainly seems 
asking too much, and more than we can do. 
Now I do not ask any more than you can do, nor 
any more than I know you will be glad to do, 
if you have made a good prayer in the morning. 

I said that one should make a good intention 
in the morning to please God by all one’s actions 
or sufferings during the day. That is beautifully 
expressed in some such words as these : “ 0 my 
God, I offer to Thee, all the thoughts, words, 
actions, and sufferings of this day, in union with 
those of Jesus Christ, with the intention of 
doing everything only to please Thee.” 


46 


RENEWAL OP GOOD INTENTION. 


You see how before-hand, by a pious intention 
and desire of the heart, you have offered all that 
may happen during the day to the Lord, and 
joined all your actions to those of Jesus Christ, 
that is, you desire to behave in all things just as 
Jesus Christ would wish you to behave, or, what 
is the same thing, to please Him and His heavenly 
Father. 

Now that good desire is accepted by God and 
laid to your credit. And although afterwards 
you may do many things without actually think¬ 
ing of God, such as eating, drinking, cooking, 
making beds, scrubbing, taking care of children, 
or any other duty, yet that morning’s good inten¬ 
tion spreads over them, covers them all with the 
virtue of holy prayer, and makes them good in 
His sight. 

We “pray without ceasing” through these 
good intentions. Our sleep is a prayer, if we 
make an intention to rest ourselves for God’s 
glory, that we may be in better health and 
strength to serve Him and do our duty. So, 
our eating and drinking, by the same kind of 
intention, is sanctified and made holy, in the 
sight of God. 

Then, always make that good intention in the 
morning, and renew it from time to time during 
the day ; saying, “ Let all my actions be to please 


KENEWAL OF GOOD INTENTION. 47 

my God,” or some thingelse like it. This will 
soon become natural to yon, for having set out 
to talk with God, He will want to talk with you. 

God, the Holy Ghost, will in His still and 
quiet way put many a good thought, and many a 
good desire in your heart, many a holy sigh and 
devout prayer on your tongue. All you will 
have to do will be to listen to that still voice, 
which will continually be saying to you, “ Do 
this, it is pleasing to God ; ” “ Let that alone, it 
will hurt your soul; ” “ Pray now a little, that 
you may keep your soul fixed on your God,” and 
many other such things. 

These short prayers, which the Holy Ghost 
will put in your mind from time to time, will 
keep your soul awake to God and attentive to 
please Him, so that you may with truth be said 
to pray without ceasing, even if for some time 
you are not conscious of making an actual 
prayer. 

Especially in any time of temptation, when 
sin of any sort seems pleasant or good to you, 
will the voice of the Holy Ghost be heard in 
your soul. “ Child of God, beware! that is a 
sinful thing, pray, oh, pray, for grace to avoid 
it.” Make a habit of attending to that voice 
within you, of shutting your eyes and ears and 
your whole mind to that evil temptation. Raise 


48 


PRAYING DURING THE DAY. 


your soul quickly to God, and cry out, “ Lord 
Jesus, help me ! let me not fall into this or any 
sin! ” or simply repeat, with devout mind the 
holy names, Jesus ! Mary ! 

That cry will quickly reach heaven, and God 
will send His help and put the temptation to 
flight. 

It is exceedingly important to get in the habit 
of praying short and fervent prayers at such times. 
By them we get a great victory over the enemies 
of the soul, and great strength to persevere, 
instead of being taken captive and led away in 
chains, to suffer all that the wicked enemy 
chooses to put upon us. 


CHAPTER XII. 

OF PRAYER DURING THE DAY. 

Besides the times of temptation, if at other 
times you feel devout, and God stirs up in your 
heart a desire to pray, you need not feel afraid 
to give way to it. If you could think of God the 
greater part of your time, there is no harm, but 




PRAYING DURING THE DAY. 49 

the greatest blessing and the greatest joy in so 
doing. 

If you can think a good thought, or wish a 
good wish, in the midst of your cooking or work¬ 
ing or house-cleaning or factory-work, be thank¬ 
ful to God for the favor, and make the most of 
it. It is certainly far better to remember God 
and eternal things, than to be whirled about 
with a continual excitement in regard to matters 
of no consequence, and to be forgetful of Him, as 
some are, from morning till night, from day to 
day, from week to week, until they almost forget 
they are Christians. 

No : do you go on a different principle : deepen 
and strengthen good thoughts on all occasions. 
Let the life of our Lord Jesus Christ, here on 
earth, be ever before you. Love to dwell on the 
particulars of His actions, as they are written 
down in the Scriptures. 

If your work comes hard, remember how He 
carried a heavy cross all the way up Mount Cal¬ 
vary. If any one speaks evil of you, see Him 
hanging on His cross, and the rabble underneath 
calling Him every vile name they could think of. 
If tired and weary, think how He after a long, 
weary travel had no place where He could lay 
His head. 

Go over His blessed, humble, charitable con* 
5 


50 


PRAYING DURING THE DAY. 


yersations and discourses ; that you may always 
be learning something new, for your own increase 
in goodness and in the love of God. 

Sometimes it may nourish your soul to think 
of our Blessed Lady. Imagine her as she goes 
about the house, always ready to do everything 
that duty requires of her, always so quiet and 
peaceable, always taking such delight in doing 
everything that could please her Maker, and in 
doing it in the most perfect manner ; always so 
sweet and obliging to all her fellow creatures. 
She is indeed in a special way an example to you, 
for it was in doing very much the same things 
that are required of you that she made herself so 
dear to God. 

Be sure to take advantage of all the usual op¬ 
portunities of calling God to mind. For exam¬ 
ple, do not sit down to eat without blessing the 
food, and do not rise up without giving thanks 
for it. Our meals in this way become a sort of 
station or stopping place, to recall to our minds 
what we are striving never to forget or lose sight 
of. They are very proper and suitable stations, 
too, since we should get ourselves in the habit of 
thanking God for all His mercies, and all the 
means of sustaining this life, which is given for 
gaining eternal life hereafter. 


NIGHT PRAYERS. 


51 


CHAPTER XIII. 

OF NIGHT PRAYERS. 

Now let us suppose the day has gone by ; that 
you have done your work ; that everything has 
been put in order, and that you have some time 
to yourself. If the day has been spent in the 
way I have been endeavoring to point out, in re¬ 
membering God and conversing with Him from 
time to time amidst your work, I am sure there 
is a fire of love burning in your heart. You 
have been so busy that you could not let it blaze 
up : it has been smouldering like live coals cov¬ 
ered up with ashes, but all ready to burst out in 
a bright and warm blaze. 

Now, then, is the good time to rake off those 
ashes, to put on some fresh fuel and let the fire 
burn brightly. Yes! nothing interferes with the 
free attention of the soul to God : all the world 
is hushed and the darkness of night only seems 
to make God nearer to us. We feel our own 
helplessness; what mere nothings we are, and 
God seems all and everything. We understand 
then more clearly how great, how wonderful, 
how wise, and how good He is. This is indeed 
a golden time to raise the soul to God. 


52 


NIGHT PRAYERS. 


Brother Gerard, a lay brother of the congrega¬ 
tion of the Most Holy Redeemer, used to spend 
whole nights looking up at the stars so bright 
and wonderful, his heart perfectly filled with 
love and admiration for God their Creator. Of 
course, you cannot do the like, but the solemn 
silence of the night invites you to set apart some 
time, and a more considerable time than at any 
other part of the day, to devote it to God and 
your soul. 

Then you can cast a look back at the day that 
has passed, to see how you have spent it; to see 
what has been wrong, that you may be sorry for 
it and sincerely resolve to amend it. Recall to 
mind what good you have done, that you may 
humbly thank God for it; for it is indeed a 
source of joy if we have done well, though we 
must remember that all good comes from the 
Holy Ghost, and that without Him we could not 
so much as think a good thought. 

This is a time, too, to thank God for all His 
mercies and for all you have had to suffer, since 
that is a mercy, if you did but know it; to re¬ 
commend yourself to His protection for the night, 
and to give yourself body and soul to Him ; to 
offer Him your life, and your death, at whatever 
time and in whatever manner may be most pleas¬ 
ing to Him. 


NIGHT PRAYERS. 


53 


Now there is one caution I must give you, in 
order that all my advice about your night pray¬ 
ers may not turn out useless. It is a plain thing, 
but most important. You should have a regu¬ 
lar hour for retiring and preparing yourself for 
your night’s rest, and that hour ought not to be 
a late one. Late hours are the destruction of 
piety. Fix your hour, and when it comes around 
retire that you may commune with God. 

Do not run out visiting every evening. If you 
go out now and then to see your friends and ac¬ 
quaintances, be sure to finish your visit in good 
time, and get home again at your regular hour 
for retiring. In the same way, if visitors come 
to see you, do not let them stay too late. Re¬ 
mind them kindly that it is getting late, and that 
you are obliged to retire. Bid them good-night, 
and let them go home, so that they may get to 
understand that it is no use to come to see you 
at an unreasonable time. 

This is very important, for how can a poor 
girl talk and talk all the evening until a late 
hour, without every good impression being driven 
out of her soul ? After such an evening, when 
she kneels down to pray she will find herself 
quite distracted; not a good thought will be 
likely to come into her mind. All the affairs of 
Bridget and Mary, or John and William, or Mrs. 

5 * 


54 


OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 


This or Mrs. That, a heap of idle, nonsensical 
thoughts, will be chasing one another in her poor 
distracted head. 

It may be, sinful temptations will get such a 
firm hold on her imagination that the devil will 
be sure to bring her into some sin ; while much 
of that holy peacefulness, that reigned in her soul 
before, is lost. 

Shun, then, late hours, shun idle gossiping, 
slanderous and sinful talk; and keep your soul 
in such a state that when the blessed hour ar¬ 
rives to pray, you may find yourself ready, and 
in a fit mood to enjoy the conversation of God 
your Saviour. 


CHAPTER XIV. 

OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 

“ Oh ! ” you say, “ it would be very well, if we 
could spend our day in pious thoughts and prayer 
as you have laid it out for us, but if you could 
only be obliged, as we are, to work in the kitchen, 
or take care of noisy children, you would soon 



OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 


55 


see that it is much easier to give these directions 
than to carry them out. You would see that it 
is a hard thing to recollect one’s self at all.” 

I can well imagine a good-hearted, well-dis¬ 
posed girl, whose temper is lively and somewhat 
impatient, and who wants to do everything at 
once, saying something of this kind, at least in 
her mind. Now, I say to her : You are mis¬ 
taken. Work, and hard work, too, will not in¬ 
terfere with the daily life I have laid down for 
you. I do not mean to say that you can learn to 
follow it out perfectly all at once, so that nothing 
will be left to improve upon. Nothing is done 
just in that way. 

It took you many years to grow to your full 
height. First you were a little baby, and could 
not help yourself. Then you had to toddle about 
and to walk. Afterwards you were a little girl 
without much wit in your head ; you could not 
work or maintain yourself, but you kept on grow¬ 
ing little by little ; you kept on eating your food 
and growing, though nobody could see you grow, 
until little by little you came to be what you are 
now, with the full use of body and mind. 

These holy practices of prayer will be imper¬ 
fect, perhaps, in the beginning, but they will 
grow. You may not see how they grow from 
day to day, it is such a gradual thing, but after 


56 


OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 


some time you can look back and see very plainly 
that you have made progress, and that spiritual 
things have taken root in your soul, and the tree 
of your salvation is growing strong and healthy. 
Let me give you an example to show you that 
much work, and hard work, cannot prevent your 
raising your soul constantly to God. 

St. Catherine, of Sienna, when very young, 
just verging upon the age of womanhood, was very 
pious, prayed a great deal, and occupied her 
thoughts with God and heavenly things. She 
had such a clear insight into the vanity of all 
earthly things, that she determined to live only 
for Jesus Christ, and never to marry. This did 
not please her mother and the rest of the family. 
Her eldest married sister had died suddenly, and 
they were anxious that Catherine should accept 
a very advantageous offer, and so take her sister’s 
place in the family. 

But she would not listen to such a proposal, 
and to show how fixed her resolution was, she 
cut off her hair, which was very beautiful. The 
whole family felt highly displeased. They con¬ 
sidered her much too pious. They knew they 
could do nothing while she prayed so much, so 
what did they hit upon ? They coueluded to load 
her down with work. They sent away the ser¬ 
vant, and made her do all the work of the house. 


OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 


57 


Another person was placed in her room, so 
that she should never be alone at any time, and 
they always contrived to send for her, and break 
up her prayers, when she was seen to commence 
them. Do you think they succeeded in cooling 
her love for God, or lessening her prayer ? Not 
at all. She went on. quietly as before, did all 
her work, and prayed at the same time, in that 
simple, short way I have recommended, and made 
more progress in the love of God than ever be¬ 
fore. She did not allow herself to be disturbed, 
for she built a little room for herself in her own 
heart, to which she retired very frequently, and 
there she always found the Holy Ghost waiting 
for her, and helping her to pray. 

They drove her out of her room, it is true, but 
they could not drive her out of her own heart, 
where God has His dwelling, as the Scripture 
says : “ The kingdom of God is within you.” St. 
Luke xvii. 21. And again, “ All the glory of the 
king’s daughter is within.” Ps. xliv. 14. 

That is true ; all the work in the world cannot 
hinder you from admiring, loving, and seeking 
God ; cannot hinder you from begging God for 
His grace and love. It cannot hinder you from 
being daughters of the heavenly King, if your 
beauty is within, in the soul; if you make your¬ 
selves beautiful in His sight, by keeping your 


58 


SPENDING SUNDAY WELL. 


hearts directed to him in the midst of your occu¬ 
pations, while you are ready to give more time 
and attention to prayer, as soon as your leisure 
permits you to do so. 


CHAPTER XV. 

ADVANTAGE OF SPENDING SUNDAY WELL. 

We have seen how to spend the day, united to 
God by devout sighs and aspirations and holy 
prayers, amidst all the employments of busy life. 

Every week, by God’s appointment, there 
comes around a day especially devoted to his 
service, and the refreshment of our souls—the 
Sunday—when labor ceases, in great measure, to 
give place to devotion and innocent recreation. 

What a blessing this is from God. We may 
compare it to the oasis in the desert. The weary 
traveller, in eastern countries, sometimes has to 
make his way through vast regions of barren, 
heated sand, with no springs of refreshing water, 
no trees to shade him from the sun, no cool 
breezes, often for many days, until he is ready to 



SPENDING SUNDAY WELL. 


59 


sink down from fatigue and exhaustion; his 
tongue parched with thirst; his blood on fire 
with the heat. 

In these regions, scattered here and there, are 
beautiful spots, where clear, fresh water springs 
from the ground ; where delightful fruits, oranges, 
lemons, dates, grow in great abundance, and the 
air is cooled by the water springs. 

How these travellers long to find these spots! 
When the camels and other beasts of burden 
snuff the air from a distance, they forget their 
fatigue, they run with eagerness to quench their 
thirst at the cool fountains, and to enjoy the fresh 
grass. Their owners, with no less delight, stop 
a day, or several of them, to recruit their strength 
and cheer up their spirits, that they may be en¬ 
abled to continue their way until they reach an¬ 
other of these refreshing places. So, they hope, 
finally, to.get through the wearisomeness of the 
whole journey, and successfully gain all they had 
in view in setting out. 

Our Sundays are to us such cool, delightful 
spots in the journey of life. The soul is weary 
of the dust and heat of the world. The soul is 
fatigued with having so many things to do, and 
longs for opportunity to rest in God ; to satisfy 
the thirst it has for God. It longs for the cool 
fountains and the refreshing waters. 


60 


SPENDING SUNDAY WELL. 


Where are they ? In the house of God, in the 
very place where He dwells. There is the altar 
of God in the church, His house : the burning 
lights are around it, flowers decorate it, devout 
worshippers surround it, and all invites the sou* 
to pray. 

But what are all the lights and flowers com 
pared to Him who is present in their midst? 
The Lord of Glory, the Blessed Saviour Himself, 
is there. He has come down on that altar to 
offer Himself for us ; to pray to His Heavenly 
Father by His wounds and blood most effectually 
for us, and to remain in our midst to hear our 
prayers and talk with us face to face. 

Thus, the Sunday is the time, and the church 
is the place, for the soul’s weekly rest. The good 
girl, who longs for God’s love, will not pass it by. 
God in His mercy has commanded that we should 
take advantage of it. “ Remember the Sabbath 
day to keep it holy.” The church, of which the 
Lord said, “ He that heareth you heareth me ” 
(St. Luke x. 16), which is in Christ’s place, now 
that Christ has ascended into heaven, has 
changed this time of rest from the seventh to the 
first day of the week, in honor of the Lord’s 
rising from the dead on that day. 

The Sabbath of the Jews has given place to 
the Christian Sunday, but the obligation of keep- 


WORKING ON SUNDAY. 


61 


ing one day in the week holy remains the same. 
We are bound, then, by the law of God to do so. 
But in what way are Christians required to keep 
the day holy, in order that they may not sin 
against this law ? This question I will answer 
in the next chapter. 


CHAPTER XYI. 

OF WORKING ON SUNDAY. 

We are required to abstain from servile or 
hard labor, that is to say, from labor of the 
hands, and to assist, at least once, at the Holy 
Mass on the Sunday. But we must understand 
what is meant by being forbidden to work on 
that day. Necessary work, such as belongs to 
the good order of the house—cooking, making 
beds, sweeping, and putting things in order—is 
not forbidden. 

The care of the sick is a necessary and char¬ 
itable work. Sometimes, unless work is done, 
valuable property would go to destruction. In 
all these cases work must be done ; and it would 
6 



62 


WORKING ON SUNDAY. 


be displeasing to God should you refuse to do it 
on the plea that it is wrong to work on the 
Sunday. 

Indeed, as a general rule, the mistress of the 
house is the proper judge of what is necessary 
and what not. She knows many reasons that 
you do not know, and it is not proper to make 
her give an account of everything to those in her 
employment. That would be upsetting the order 
of things that the Lord has established when He 
says, “ Servants, be obedient unto your masters 
according to the flesh.” Eph. vi. 5. 

So, if anything of no very great importance 
comes up, do it cheerfully ; and, depend upon it, 
the responsibility Will not be on your shoulders. 
On the contrary, the Lord will look on your mild 
and peaceable disposition, free from all strife and 
contention, so much like His own, and reward it 
with special graces. 

It is quite another thing when you put off your 
own work until Sunday. This depends not on 
the will of a mistress, but on your own; and, 
therefore, you, and not any one else, will have 
to answer for it. To devote Sunday to making 
up articles of dress, or to a general mending of 
clothes, is very wrong. 

And, even if you live in the country, where 
you cannot attend mass, the case is not altered, 


WORKING ON SUNDAY. 


63 


for the command, “ Six days slialt thou labor and 
do all thou hast to do,” applies as well to such 
cases as to any others. The day, everywhere, is 
intended to be devoted to the service of God, 
and not to work. 

But suppose the mistress of the house has no 
sense of what is proper ; makes no distinction 
between Sunday and another day; loads you 
down with work that, it is clear, could as well 
be done another day: what is to be done in that 
case? 

Keep quiet, do not fly into a rage, do not fly 
in her face, but quietly look around for another 
place. It may be, that, if you spoke about it 
quietly, and without passion, it would be set right; 
but if not, look out for another place, where 
the Lord’s day is respected, and when you have 
found one, give notice peaceably and quietly of 
your intention to leave. 

Perhaps the master or mistress of the house 
may ask the reason. Do not let your feelings 
get the upper hand, but tell them with the 
utmost calmness, that your religion requires you 
to avoid unnecessary work on the Sunday ; that 
you find so little regard paid to God’s command¬ 
ment in regard to this, that you cannot remain 
longer. Who knows, but that such a mild but 
firm answer may produce a happy change, and 


64 


ATTENDANCE AT MASS. 


take away the difficulty ? If so, the next girl 
who comes into their service will not be troubled 
in the same way. 

I need say no more about labor on Sundays, 
for your own good sense, and, more than all, the 
light of the Holy Ghost, which is given to all 
who sincerely ask it, must direct you as to the 
rest. 


CHAPTER XVII. 

ON ATTENDANCE AT MASS. EXCUSES FOR NEG¬ 
LECTING IT. 

Why has the Almighty required His people 
to abstain from labor on the Sunday ? Surely it 
was not in order that they might be quite idle 
and listless. No! It was in order to afford us 
a better chance to worship Him, and to attend 
to our souls. Therefore, along with the abstin¬ 
ence from labor is the command to attend to 
God’s service, by hearing at least once the Holy 
Mass on that day. 

How a well-principled girl can neglect this 



ATTENDANCE AT MASS. 


65 


duty is more than I can conceive. How can she 
be determined to worship God in spirit and in 
truth, and yet neglect the very highest and best 
act of worship it is possible to pay ? t 

This is just what the Holy Mass is, in which 
our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, true God and 
true man, comes down from heaven upon our 
altar, to offer Himself in sacrifice for our sins, and 
to give Himself to us in Communion : to renew 
the very action which He performed when He 
died for us upon the cross. We are properly 
required, then, to assist at this most important 
action, and not let the day go by without having 
discharged this duty. 

You must do so, according to the very best 
of your ability. I say according to the best of 
your ability, because I know that every one can¬ 
not go to Mass every Sunday. Still, I am told by 
a very truthful and judicious girl at service, who 
has had a good deal of experience herself, and 
is largely acquainted with the circumstances of 
others, that it is rarely the case, at least in cities 
and towns, that a good girl who desires it, can¬ 
not go to Mass every Sunday. 

I believe she spoke the truth, and that where 
there is a will there is a way, and that with a 
little good management, at least one Mass can be 
heard on each Sunday. In our large cities and 
6 * 


66 


ATTENDANCE AT MASS. 


towns there are often so many Masses at different 
hours of the morning, that one could select the 
most convenient, and attend it without neglect¬ 
ing any duty at home. 

It may be necessary to rise early, it is true; 
for there are some girls who cannot well attend 
any Mass unless they get to the first one. Well, 
then: get up with cheerfulness and attend to your 
duty ; you will have time enough to rest another 
part of the day. 

I have not much patience with the sleepy¬ 
heads, who sleep away their precious time, when 
duty calls them to be awake. I am sure they 
cannot have much patience with themselves. 
They must feel out of sorts and miserable to 
think they have had so little courage, and so 
little conscience, as to lie in their beds when they 
know perfectly well they ought to be up, and 
that God’s voice was calling them away to the 
church. 

My dear good girl, no matter how comfortable 
the bed may be, no matter how little inclination 
you may feel to go out, rise at once; seize the 
opportunity to hear Mass. Be found among the 
devout worshippers kneeling before the altar, 
and the good God will not forget it. 

The habit of obeying the voice of God in this 
respect, will help you in other respects, and on 


ATTENDANCE AT MASS. 


67 


other occasions. You will be laying solidly the 
foundations of that mansion which shall be yours 
eternally in the heavens. 

Sometimes your going to Mass will depend on 
your asking permission, or giving notice in order 
that matters may be arranged so as to allow you 
to go. Many a girl keeps silent and loses Mass. 
Now that is not right. It is your duty to 
speak. 

It is well to have an understanding on the 
subject when you enter service at a place, that 
everybody may be satisfied afterwards. Inquire 
modestly what can be allowed in this respect, 
and depend upon it, your employers will think all 
the more of you for it. 

It happened once, that, after a Mission, one of 
the missionaries had occasion to call on a Protes¬ 
tant acquaintance. In the course of the con¬ 
versation the priest remarked, “ I fear the con¬ 
stant attendance of your servants at the Mission 
has put your wife to some inconvenience.” “ Yes, 
it has caused some inconvenience,” was the reply, 
“ but we are glad to suffer it, for we know well 
that the best servants are those who attend to 
their religious duties the best. We feel it to be 
right to offer to others the privileges which we 
prize so much for ourselves.” 

Every right-minded master or mistress will 


68 


ATTENDANCE AT MASS. 


have such sentiments, and they are held far more 
commonly than we give them credit for. I do 
not like to hear of a Catholic girl going off to 
mass secretly and slily, as if she were doing 
something to be ashamed of. No! let her say 
openly when she is going, and I am confident 
that in most cases there will be every disposition 
to arrange things according to her wishes. 

Sometimes, when several are employed in the 
same family, they could all attend Mass, if a 
spirit of charity prevailed among them, and a 
disposition to accommodate one another. Why 
should they not change places sometimes, and 
one do the other’s work while she goes to Mass ? 
How much better is this, than that cross and 
snappish spirit which makes one flare up with 
pride and anger, and say, “No, I will not! ” 
“ You attend to your own work, and I will to 
mine.” “ I won’t wash dishes for anybody.” 
“ I won’t have anything to do with taking care 
of the child. I don’t want to be troubled with 
the cross thing.” “ I’m going to Mass. What 
do I care whether you go or not.” “ I’m not 
obliged to be looking out for you.” How hateful 
such things are in the sight of God, who came 
down from heaven to do good to us all, who 
has enjoined on us so often to love one another, 
and to be solicitous for one another’s happiness ! 

3 * 


ATTENDANCE AT MASS. 


69 


Is this, “ bearing one another’s burdens,” that so 
we “ may fulfill the law of Christ ?” Gal. y. 2. I 
think not, and I fear that she who attends to her 
religious duties with such a spirit, will get very 
little profit from them. 

The truth is, some girls are glad enough of an 
excuse to keop away from Mass. They pretend 
their duties keep them back, and they could go, 
after all, well enough, if they chose to make 
arrangements to do so. 

And here let me caution you as to another 
fault. A girl is in a good place, where she can 
and does go to Mass every Sunday, but now and 
then something occurs to prevent it. She straight¬ 
way flies into a passion, and declares her inten¬ 
tion to quit her place. I know such an instance. 

A girl had been living some time in a place, 
where she was treated with every indulgence, 
and allowed to go to Mass every Sunday. She 
had not been required to remain at home a single 
time, until the lady of the house, who was very 
sick and near to death, required her help one 
Sunday, after the others had been exhausted in 
watching. Immediately she refused with great 
anger; declaring she would not lose Mass for 
anybody or anything, and that she would not 
continue to live in the place any longer. 

There was no obligation to hear Mass under 


70 


EXCUSES. 


such circumstances, as she ought to have known, 
and such conduct was scandalous, giving a very 
false and hateful aspect to our holy faith, which 
we all know enjoins the utmost charity to the 
sick and suffering. That girl’s own conscience 
told her this, for she came the next day acknow¬ 
ledging her fault, and asking forgiveness. 

When pride and ill-temper put on the cloak 
of piety and duty, they are more hateful than in 
their own dress, for then they bring dishonor 
upon religion and God. 


CHAPTER XVIII. 

EXCUSES FOR NOT ATTENDING MASS. 

I will tell you another reason why many do 
not go to Mass regularly, as they ought. They 
have no seat in the church, and, of course, they 
do not feel at home there. If they had a place 
to go to, they would not feel ashamed, as they 
do now, to be seen kneeling in the aisles, or be 
afraid of being turned out because they are 



EXCUSES. 


71 


taking up a seat that another has paid for, and 
which they fear they must give up as soon as he 
makes his appearance. 

It is true, there is no class of Catholics better, 
on the whole, in this respect, than girls who live 
out. They generally do have a home in the 
church, and it is a real pleasure to see them 
there, with so much devotion, and evidently so 
delighted to be near our Blessed Lord, and His 
Holy Mother. 

But some, and perhaps a good many, have no 
seat, and it is for this reason, that they often, 
and very often too, neglect their duty. Now 
and then conscience speaks loudly to them, and 
forces them to go to Mass. And then what will 
you see ? A young woman, kneeling in the aisle, 
dressed perhaps in a lilac silk, with a pink satin 
bonnet, and an ostrich feather sticking out at the 
top of it. What a sight! She is so poor she 
cannot afford to pay a small sum for a seat in the 
house of God, and why not? Every cent she 
can get is laid out in finery to put on her back, 
and, to tell the truth, she would look much better 
without it. 

This reminds me of an excuse that is often 
made, “ I do not attend Mass, for my clothes are 
not suitable.” I imagine very few girls, who 
have work, will be inclined to say any such 


72 


EXCUSES. 


thing, and if they do, I hardly think they can be 
saying the strict truth. 

Decent clothes may be necessary, but not fine 
ones. The church is the last place to go to, to 
show off. Many say their clothes are not good 
enough, when what they have on is quite as good 
as pious and virtuous ladies are content to wear. 

Others say, “ I did not go to Mass, because I 
had no shoes to wear.” And why not ? Because 
they have neglected to provide them. So they 
go week after week, neglecting their duty out 
of sheer laziness and inattention. 

If tempted to vanity on the score of clothing, 
remember the Blessed Virgin. The thought of 
her will put all such proud and foolish notions 
out of your head. 

Another says she has missed Mass because 
something happened, just as she was getting ready 
to go, that put her out of temper, and she felt so 
confused, and “ all of a tremble,” that she just 
stayed at home. “ What use would it be to go 
in such a state of mind ? ” she says. All the use 
in the world. What! Because one sin is com¬ 
mitted, shall we give ourselves headlong to com¬ 
mit many others ? That is indeed a poor way to 
get along. No such reason excuses you from 
your obligation. 

The right thing for you to say, is: “I am 


EXCUSES. 


73 


bound to attend Mass ; whether I was right or 
wrong, whether I am cross or happy, I will go.” 
It is better to go even with angry feelings, and 
avoid the sin of losing Mass, than to stay away. 

Depend upon it, if you act on this principle, 
before you reach the church, your resentment 
will begin to disappear. A few words of prayer: 
“ God, help me f “ Jesus, teach me “ My mother 
Mary, pray for mewill set everything right 
again ; and the very spirit of the humble Jesus, 
the Lamb of God, will fill you with consola¬ 
tion. 

In all our troubles, afflictions, trials, risings of 
passion or temptations, the surest help is to have 
recourse to God in the church, and especially in 
time of Holy Mass. Bend your whole heart to the 
performance of this duty. 

This command to assist at Mass must not be 
misunderstood. It is different from the Com¬ 
mandments, that forbid blasphemy, impurity, dis¬ 
honesty, and such like things. These are evil in 
themselves, and can never be lawful. But the 
obligation to hear Mass may be taken away by a 
good and sufficient reason, as I have said already. 

In many places and situations it will not be 
possible to go every Sunday. In the country 
where there is no church, it may happen that we 
cannot go except rarely. When you do your 
7 


74 


EXCUSES. 


best, and would gladly go always if you could, 
God will accept the will for the deed. 

Oftentimes the hermits, who served God in the 
desert, could not hear Mass for a long time, .still 
they grew dearer to God and holier every day. 
St. Mary, of Egypt, for many a long year had to 
forego the happiness of hearing Mass, yet she be¬ 
came a wonderful saint, filled with the spirit of 
God. 

In cases where you cannot attend Mass, en¬ 
deavor to join yourself, by your prayers, to those 
who do. Keep your soul quiet and recollected 
more that day than any other. Keep your room, 
if you can, a part of the day, read something 
pious, and I assure you God will make up to you 
all you would have gained by hearing the Mass. 

But, if you have the chance, attend Vqspers. 
Our Lord is present in the Blessed Sacrament; 
you can at that time adore Him, and pour out 
your soul before Him. Although it is not so 
binding a duty as to hear Mass, it is a great help 
to the soul to attend to it. Every girl who is 
anxious to give her heart to God, will go to Ves¬ 
pers as well as Mass, if she has the opportunity. 
It is a solemn service of the church, and a great 
blessing attends its observance. Ah! we need 
as much grace as we can get to keep our hearts 
fixed on God. Is it not better to be in his house 


HOW TO ASSIST AT MASS. 


75 


than to be gadding about, and losing in idle talk 
the good influences which the day is expected to 
leave behind it ? 

Morning and evening, let us not begrudgetogive 
to God our praise and thanksgiving; then we shall 
be able with more satisfied minds to enjoy inno¬ 
cent conversation and recreation, a walk, or a 
visit to friends or relations, at other times of the 
day. 


CHAPTER XIX. 

HOW TO ASSIST AT MASS. 

“ How shall I spend my time at Mass ? It seems 
sometimes so long. I do not know what to do. 
My mind is filled with distractions ? ” 

It is a simple matter to attend at Mass. You 
come to worship God and to pray. No particu¬ 
lar way of doing so is laid down. Each one is 
free to do those things that come most natural to 
him. Some say the Rosary, and occupy their 
minds with good thoughts while they do so. 
Others have a book with prayers for Mass, which 
they follow : all this is very well. Others get to 



76 


HOW TO ASSIST AT MASS. 


understand the meaning of the different parts of 
the Mass, and they follow the holy sacrifice 
better with such prayers as they find in their 
own hearts. 

For example, at the “ Confiteor” they strike 
their breasts with the priest, and are sorry for 
all their sins, and make acts of contrition. At 
the “ Offertory,” when the bread and wine are 
offered to God to be used in the Sacrifice, they 
offer themselves, body, soul, memory, will and 
understanding, all that they are, all that they 
have, and all that they hope for, to God, that He 
may do what He pleases with them ; and deter¬ 
mining that all shall be devoted to Him, and used 
in His service. All this will take up a good deal 
of time, and be very profitable. 

When the bell is rung the first time, that is, at 
the “ Sanctus,” they can begin to think more 
especially of God, of His greatness and goodness, 
of His majesty and love, and their own lowness 
and meanness in comparison. This will bring 
them along to the “ Elevation,” when the Holy 
Host and the Chalice, our Lord Jesus Christ 
himself, is elevated or raised on high by the 
priest. Then they can simply bend down their 
bodies, and their souls at the same time, in a 
simple, profound, deep act of worship and adora¬ 
tion of God, who is elevated on high on purpose 


HOW TO ASSIST AT MASS. 


77 


to receive it. After the elevation, we can pre¬ 
pare for the “ Communion ” that follows, when 
the priest receives the most Precious Body and 
Blood. 

If you do not “ receive” at the Mass, at least 
you may do what you would do if you were going 
to receive. You can say with the priest: “ Lord, 
I am not worthy.” You can beg the Lord to 
visit your heart. You can ask the same graces 
as if you did receive; then you can thank Him 
for all His goodness, and all that He has done 
for you, which will occupy your time until the 
close of the Mass. 

Now, is not this a good way to hear Mass ? 
It seems to me, that it should come natural to 
everybody. I am confident that many among 
educated people prefer this way to any other. 
They shut up their books, and let their souls 
have free liberty to raise themselves as they find 
most natural and most fitted to promote the 
love of God ; the end and object of all devotion. 
Pious thoughts, good desires, and prayers of every 
sort, and in any order, will suffice to make the 
hearing of Mass profitable. 

Returning home from church after an hour 
thus devoutly spent, I am sure you will not for¬ 
get the sacred character of the day, nor go into 
places dangerous to your soul, nor keep any evil 
7 * 


78 ON READING GOOD BOOKS. 

company. The same modesty and recollection 
you brought from church, will attend you every¬ 
where, and when night comes around you will 
be ready to exclaim before you retire to rest: 
“ What a happy and useful day I have spent!” 
“ One day in thy courts is better than a thousand. 
It is better to be a doorkeeeper in the house of 
my God, than to dwell in the tents of the un¬ 
godly.” Ps. lxxxiii. 10. With a light, cheerful 
heart you will commend your soul to God, now 
prepared with good courage to fight the good 
fight of faith against all the enemies of your sal¬ 
vation, for the coming week. 


CHAPTER XX. 

OP READING GOOD BOOKS. 

It will frequently happen that you will have 
leisure time at your disposal. When the work 
of the day is over in the afternoon, in the long 
evenings of winter, and especially on Sundays, 
the time will be your own, and you can do what 
you like with it. And it will be a happy thing 



ON READING GOOD BOOKS. 79 

for you if you pass it so as to increase the spirit 
of devotion. 

But you feel tired, perhaps, and unable to pray. 
We cannot always be on our knees, we cannot 
always think, and it is not the Lord’s will that 
we should overdo anything, not even prayer. 

Now there is a beautiful and easy way of 
spending one’s time piously, and of keeping up at 
the same time the spirit of prayer. That way 
consists in the reading of good books. We need 
to be entertained, and to have amusement some¬ 
times, that our minds may not get too worried, 
and unable to think clearly and rightly. 

The conversation of a good friend is very 
pleasant; it gives us this amusement without do¬ 
ing us any harm, and oftentimes it does us a. 
great deal of good. Now a good book is a good 
friend. The pages, it is true, do not look at us, 
and smile in our faces; they do not talk to us 
with all those sweet tones of a friend’s voice; 
they do not talk aloud, but still they do talk to 
us. They give us many new ideas, they instruct 
us in many things we did not know before,—in¬ 
deed, they can make us laugh, and make us weep. 
Who can read the happy death of a saint without 
feeling the tears start from his eyes ? 

Books are next to sermons, next to the living 
voice of the preacher, the most powerful means 


80 


ON READING GOOD BOOKS. 


to excite us to virtue. Get, then, at least a few 
books, and read them when you get a chance. 

“ Oh!” says a good girl, “ I wish I could! I 
have never been taught to read, and am now too 
old to learn ; besides, I have no opportunity for 
learning, there is no one to teach me, and I 
haven’t the time.” 

Now do not be cast down on that account. 
There is one beautiful book at least, we can read • 
and that is the Crucifix. What fountains of 
knowledge and true wisdom it contains! You 
can look at it, and think over what it means from 
one year’s end to another, yet you will never 
reach the bottom of it. 

St. Bona venture, who wrote so many beautiful 
things, was asked where he got them all ? what 
books he had learned them out of? “There is 
my book,” said he, pointing to the Crucifix ; “ all 
my knowledge, all my thoughts come from that.” 

Another lovely book you have, that you can 
read, though you never learned a letter of the 
alphabet, and that is the Rosary. Millions who 
could not read a word, have read that book every 
day. Get some one to teach you the meaning of 
the mysteries, and you will never fail to have the 
best of books always at hand. There is no need, 
then, to be cast down because you cannot read : 
only keep your heart simply directed to God, 


ON READING THE BIBLE. 


81 


and He will make up abundantly for all that is 
lacking. Many of the saints have not been able 
to read, but they could pray, and think of Christ’s 
sufferings and love for them, wonderfully well. 

,l But why say a word about those who cannot 
read, since they cannot read what you say?” 
That is true ; but somebody else may read it to 
them, or tell them, and then my object will be 
accomplished, which is to give every one such 
instruction and consolation as is necessary for 
them. 

If you can read, then it is the Lord’s will that 
you should make use of this gift; for He requires 
us to make good use of all our talents and 
opportunities. “ To whom much is given, of him 
much will be required.” St. Luke xii. 48. 


CHAPTER XXI. 

OP READING THE BIBLE. 

You need not, however, have a great many 
books; a few good ones are are all-sufficient to 
furnish food for your souls. Such books can be 



82 


ON READING THE BIBLE. 


read over and over without getting tired of them. 
They will always renew some good impression, 
and excite in you a strong desire to regulate 
your life so as to please God better. There is 
one book far above all others that have ever 
been written or ever will be, that is, the Holy 
Bible. This book is different from all other 
books, because we can put the most entire con¬ 
fidence in all that is written in it. Why ? It is 
God Himself, the Holy Ghost, that has caused it 
to be written for our benefit. This is what the 
Scripture itself says: “ All scripture, divinely 
inspired, is profitable to teach, to reprove, to 
correct, to instruct in justice, that the man of 
God may be perfect, furnished unto every good 
work.” 2 Tim. iii. 16. 

Especially is this the case with the New Tes¬ 
tament, which is better fitted to our times and 
circumstances, which is for the most part plainer 
and easier to be understood, and which tells us 
all that has been done for us by our Saviour and 
His apostles. 

In the Old Testament, I would advise you to 
select such parts as you can read with under¬ 
standing and profit, and not those which are 
above your comprehension, or not applicable to 
your situation. There are many prophecies, and 
accounts of ceremonies, and some narratives, 


ON READING THE BIBLE. 


83 


which, though edifying, no doubt, to those who 
understand them, are only curious and without 
profit to those who do not. Such things are 
better let alone. Perhaps some person who is 
acquainted with the different books, will advise 
you what to read, and what not. 

In the New Testament it is different. Every 
part of it is full of holy instruction, and I am 
not at all afraid that any harm will come to a 
well-intentioned, pure-minded person, from read¬ 
ing it; on the contrary, such persons will not 
fail to derive much good from it. 

But does not St. Peter say, speaking of the 
epistles of St. Paul and the other scriptures, that 
in them “ are many things hard to be understood 
which the unlearned and the unstable wrest to 
their own perdition?” 2 Peter iii. 16. Un¬ 
doubtedly he does, and nothing can be more 
true. There are even things which seem per¬ 
fectly plain and easy to understand, that would 
certainly mislead any but a scholar, unless they 
were explained. Such things were understood 
well enough at the time they were written, be¬ 
cause all the people were accustomed to use 
words in the sense in which the writers meant 
to use them. But now that language and man¬ 
ners have changed, these words have lost the 
meaning they had at that time, and convey a 


84 


ON READING THE BIBLE. 


very different one to us. They must be explained, 
or we shall be misled. 

Other things are very deep and difficult in 
themselves, even to scholars, and it is a real folly 
to set up one’s opinion, about them without an 
explanation. 

It is the church’s office to guard and preserve 
the true sense of the Scripture, as you remember 
the Scripture itself calls her “the pillar and 
and ground of the truth.” The church, where 
the meaning of a passage is obscure, or has be¬ 
come changed in the translation from one lan¬ 
guage to another, lias placed notes and explana¬ 
tions to preserve the original meaning. There 
can be no objection to reading a Catholic Bible, 
and I find it strongly recommended to the faithful 
as the best of all books to read. Pope Pius VI. 
declares that “ the faithful should be excited to 
read the Holy Scriptures, which are the most 
abundant fountains to be left open to every one 
to draw from them purity of morals and doc¬ 
trine,” and he declares that “this is most suitably 
effected by publishing the sacred writings in the 
language of the country, suited to every one’s 
capacity, with suitable explanations.” (See be¬ 
ginning of Catholic Bible.) 

It is true, the proud and the evil-minded can 
injure themselves by the reading, but what of that? 


ON READING THE BIBLE. 


85 


Cannot everything good be turned into evil by 
such persons? I have seen self-conceited and 
ignorant people do this, and to the great peril 
of their salvation. Were the matter not so 
serious, one could not help laughing at the absurd 
sense sometimes put on the Scripture by such 
people. Could they have either a little more 
learning, or a little more sense, they would see 
what others see so plainly, how utterly ridiculous 
they have made themselves. Read then the 
Catholic Bible in the proper spirit, not for dispu¬ 
tation, or display of learning, but for the good 
of your soul. 


CHAPTER XXII. 

CONTINUATION. 

But do not read or keep in your possession a 
Protestant Bible or Testament. “ Whoever, 77 
says our Lord, “ is not with me, is against me. 77 
St. Matt. xii. 30. This Bible is not authorized 
by the holy church, the guardian of the Scrip¬ 
ture. That should be enough to condemn it in 
the eyes of Catholics; for what confidence can 



86 


ON READING THE BIBLE. 


we hare in a book that has passed out of the 
keeping of God’s church into that of men who 
have no authority, and who do with it what their 
own judgment and their own light dictate ? 

The Protestant translation is different from 
the Catholic in many places, and is generally 
thrown out on the world without any explana¬ 
tion ; as they say, “ without note or comment.” 
It becomes then a book that “ the unlearned and 
the unstable are likely to wrest to their own per¬ 
dition,” as St. Peter says. If it has any expla¬ 
nations, they are made by Protestants, too often 
in order to bolster up their own false religion, 
by covering up and destroying the real truth. 
A true child of God will not then either keep it 
or read it. 

You will find some mistresses who are all on 
fire to draw you away from your holy faith. They 
have an idea that the best way to do it is to get 
you first to read the Protestant Bible, and by 
and by they will volunteer to explain it in their 
own way. They come with smiling faces and 
coaxing words and say, “ I have taken a great 
fancy to you, and think a great deal of you. I 
want to make you a little present. Here is a 
beautiful copy of the Bible.” Then they show 
it, all bound with red morocco, with gilt edges, 
and perhaps adorned with pictures. “ Isn’t it 


ON READING THE BIBLE. 


87 


beautiful ? Take it, my dear, and read it. It 
cannot hurt you. It is the Word of God, and 
full of good things.” The poor girl is so over¬ 
whelmed at this that she does not know what to 
reply. She takes it, and thanks the giver. 

Another girl, with a little more courage, will 
make out to say, “I am much obliged to you, 
ma’am, but I would rather not take it.” “ And 
why not ? Are you afraid to read the Scripture, 
the Word of God? I have heard that Catholics 
were afraid to read the Bible, but I did not 
believe it. Yes, I see! the priests are afraid to 
let you read the Bible, lest you find out the errors 
of your religion.” This poor girl feels abashed ; 
she is not used to be attacked in that way, and 
she perhaps says, “No, ma’am, it is not as you 
suppose. I will take the book, much obliged to 
you.” 

Now this is just what the lady wanted, to make 
you do something contrary to your faith, to 
undermine its firmness, to get some kind of 
acknowledgment out of you that, after all, the 
Protestant religion has the truth as well as the 
Catholic. She hopes, when you begin to waver, 
you will keep on until you lose the faith alto¬ 
gether. 

Let me put in your mind a reply to all such 
attacks. Say, “ I thank you for your good inten- 


88 


ON READING THE BIBLE. 


tion, but I cannot accept your book.” “ Why 
not ? Are you forbid to read the Bible ? ” “ Oh, 
no! I am very glad to read it; but I cannot 
read any but the true Bible—the Catholic Bible. 
If you will present me with a copy of that, I 
will read it and feel obliged to you for your 
kindness.” 

And what is true of the Protestant Bible is 
true also of other Protestant books, treating of 
piety or religious doctrine. They may seem to 
read well, and to contain good principles. I 
have no doubt they do contain some ; it would bo 
strange enough if they did not. But there are, 
also, evil ones concealed among the good, and 
the piety is of a false and injurious character. 
“ Beware,” says the Saviour, “ of false prophets 
who come in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they 
are ravenous wolves.” St. Matt. vii. 15. 

The mild and gentle Saviour said this because 
He knew how destructive false doctrine is to the 
soul, and He would tell the truth, whether every 
one liked it or not. I have no intention to of¬ 
fend any one, but I must tell the truth, and 
therefore I tell you to have nothing to do with 
any religious books not of God’s church, neither 
read them, keep them, nor give them away to any¬ 
body else. 


HOW TO READ THE BIBLE. 


89 


CHAPTER XXIII. 

HOW TO READ THE BIBLE. 

Having seen what is to be avoided in the 
reading of the Scripture, let us speak a little 
more of the advantage of it. It is a mine of 
gold to the soul. You have heard, perhaps, how 
the miners in California work for gold—how 
they dig day after day, in water, and deep under 
the ground, where they are liable to be crushed 
to death by the falling of the soil. If they 
chance to find a large lump of gold, they esteem 
all their hardship as nothing ; they are ready to 
leap and dance for the joy of their hearts. 

But a single verse of Holy Scripture is often¬ 
times of more value to the immortal soul than 
all the gold of the world for the body. St. An¬ 
thony, the hermit, when a young man, entered 
the church one day when the Holy Scripture was 
being read. He heard the words “ Go, sell all 
that thou hast and give to the poor, and come 
follow me.” St. Luke xviii. 22. They sunk 
right down into his soul. He obeyed them, sold 
his possessions, gave the money to the poor, and 
went into the desert, that he might follow the 
8 


90 HOW TO READ THE BIBLE. 

Lord Jesus Christ more perfectly. There he 
became one of the greatest of saints. 

How many places there are that fill us with 
hope, with consolation, with strong desire to 
serve God. Why, we can think over a single 
sentence for months and months, and even our 
whole lives, and constantly find matter for 
thought and prayer. Take that beautiful sermon 
of our Lord on the mount; who can ever under¬ 
stand the whole perfection of it ? or, who could 
fail to find something in it to feed his soul, if he 
were to read it over every week of his life ? 

I was much pleased with an expression I found 
in the lives of some nuns who lived in the time 
of St. Basil, fourteen hundred years ago. It is 
said “ they nourished their souls with the daily 
food of the Divine Scriptures.” That is, they 
meditated them over, and set themselves to work 
at once to carry out their teachings as well as 
they could. And the good people of those times 
who could not read listened with all their ears 
to hear the Holy Scriptures, counting themselves 
as rich if they could remember one verse to 
carry away with them, as if a precious pearl had 
been given them. 

If we were as docile and as watchful, what a 
treasure we should find in the Scriptures 1 Bead 
them with attention; with the wish always to 


HOW TO READ THE BIBLE. 


91 


get good out of them. Do not run over too 
much at one time ; but, when something strikes 
you, pause over it, think over it, and lift your 
heart to God, to beg Him to fix it in your soul, 
to thank Him for the good thoughts and feelings 
which come to you, or to make other prayers, as 
you may feel inclined. And afterward, try to 
keep it in your mind, so that you may be able to 
call it back when you like. It will help you to 
pray with fervor. 

I like this mixing of reading and prayer ; and 
when your reading excites prayer, by all means 
stop, raise your eyes or close them, and pray as 
long as you feel inclined to. Then go on with 
your reading. May be in a very short time some 
other good thought will strike you, and you will 
want to pray again. Do so ; and do not be 
afraid to interrupt the reading as often as you 
have something to say to God. 

This is the way St. Teresa used to do, and she 
became, as is well known, the very saint to teach 
others how to pray. She helped herself with a 
book, just in the way I have described, until, 
finally, she needed no book, for she could hardly 
help praying all the time, it became so natural to 
her. 


/ 


5 * 


92 


OF OTHER GOOD BOOKS. 


CHAPTER XXIV. 

OF OTHER GOOD BOOKS. 

If you had no other book than the New Test¬ 
ament, it would be an abundance of good read¬ 
ing. Still, it is well to have a little variety. 
Any good book of instructions, such as the 
“ Mission Book,” is of great advantage, because 
there you will’ find what you most want to know 
laid out in order, and in such a way that you 
can understand it. The Scripture excites you 
to do right in general; but such a book teaches 
you how to carry out the teaching of the Scrip¬ 
ture, and to regulate your life in practice ; how 
to behave under the actual circumstances of life, 
so that you need not fear being led astray 
through want of knowing what to do. 

St. Philip Neri was once asked what books he 
thought the best. He replied, those whose writ¬ 
ers’ names begin with an S. That is, those 
written by the saints , by men or women filled 
with the spirit of God. There are many beauti¬ 
ful books written by such persons, for instance, 
the works of St. Francis of Sales, and of St. 
Alphonsus Liguori. Choose among these a few 


OF OTHER GOOD BOOKS. 


93 


that suit your taste, but do uot be anxious to get 
too many. 

There is one book which I think very good 
for daily reading during the year, and that is, 
“ Butler’s Lives of the Saints.” We feel so much 
encouraged to press on in the way of virtue, and 
to follow the Saviour, when we read how others 
have done so before us. In this excellent work 
are the lives of the principal saints, with many 
good instructions and observations which explain 
what otherwise might be misunderstood. 

It was by reading the lives of the saints, that 
St. Ignatius was excited to a holy life. He had 
been wounded in battle, and was laid up a long 
time before he recovered. The time hung heavy 
on his hands, and to occupy his mind he read all 
the novels he could get. When there were no 
more, they brought him some lives of the saints. 
Soon after he began to read, their earnestness 
and courage in striving for the Kingdom of 
Heaven, touched his heart. “ Why cannot I do 
likewise ?” said he ; and immediately he began 
to give himself up, heart and soul, with all his 
energy, to serve God. 

These moving and affecting lives may touch 
your hearts, too, and urge you on to do your 
whole duty witli courage and perseverance. 
Only be careful not to attempt rashly to imitate 


94 


OF OTHER GOOD BOOKS. 


them iii those things that are extraordinary and 
singular, such as great fasting or bodily austeri¬ 
ties. The humility, the meekness, and patience 
of the saints, their love to one another,—these 
things you can safely follow, the more closely the 
better. But their extraordinary works of pen¬ 
ance were performed through a particular in¬ 
spiration of the Holy Ghost, and it would be 
both unwise and injurious for ordinary persons 
to undertake them. Leave all that is wonderful 
and unusual. These things we can admire, but 
must not be too quick to imitate. 

But above all, put out of your heads the wish 
to see visions, or to have miracles performed by 
God for you, or to dream dreams, or any things 
of the sort. When God sends them it is all 
well. It is not probable, however, that He will 
send them, and it is not pleasing to Him, if we ask 
for them or desire them. It would be much 
better to say, “ 0 my God! I am content to walk 
by the simple light of faith. • If it be Thy will, 
please preserve me from all dreams, visions, or 
any extraordinary ways, and let me sanctify my¬ 
self by doing my duty and Thy blessed will in 
all things.” 

The devil has no chance to deceive the soul 
that walks in this road, and her humility will 
draw down God’s richest graces. 


NATURE OF THE SACRAMENTS. 


95 


Read, then, and pray, and what the Scripture 
says of the just man will be true of you : “ His 
will is the law of the Lord, and in His law he 
shall meditate day and night. And he shall be 
like a tree planted near the running water, which 
produces-its fruit in due season, for its leaf shall 
not fall. And behold, whatever he doeth shall 
prosper.” Ps. i. Be faithful to these holy exercises, 
and you will be watered abundantly by the di¬ 
vine grace, grow steadily and rapidly in good¬ 
ness, and produce in due time the fruits of holi¬ 
ness. Everything will turn out well for your 
soul, until you shall reap your blessed reward in 
heaven. 


CHAPTER XXY. 

ON THE NATURE OF THE SACRAMENTS. 

Of all the means of leading a devout life, the 
most important remain yet to be spoken of. These 
are the holy Sacraments of Penance and the 
Eucharist, or, as they are commonly called, of 
Confes ion and Communion. 

There are, as you know, other sacraments 



96 NATURE OF THE SACRAMENTS. 

besides these, but I only wish to speak here of 
these two because they are to be received fre¬ 
quently, and are adapted to the every-day wants 
of the soul. 

These may be called the very means of our 
Lord Jesus Christ Himself, since He established 
them to remain until the end of the world, in 
order to impart to us the graces necessary to 
bring us to everlasting life. 

You know our Lord is represented in the 
Gospel as the Good Shepherd, who watches over 
His flock to keep all harm away from it, and to 
provide it with the best and most agreeable 
nourishment. I have seen most affecting pictures, 
in which He is represented carrying the poor 
stray sheep on His shoulders, safe home to the 
fold. Now it is especially through the holy 
sacraments that our Lord fulfills this office of 
Shepherd of our souls. 

Through them He guards us from the enemies 
who are on the look out to surprise and destroy 
us. Through them He gives us food for the soul, 
that makes us strong, and healthful, and full of 
courage, and through them He gives the sweetest 
consolation in all our distress and downhearted¬ 
ness. 

These sacraments are not merely something 
within us, that passes between our soul and God, 


NATURE OF THE SACRAMENTS. 97 

but they are outward signs, something that we 
see, or hear, or do—as for, example, when we 
wish to receive the Sacrament of Penance, we 
not only prepare ourselves in our hearts, but we 
go to the priest of God, we declare to him our 
sins, and he raises his hand and pronounces the 
Absolution over us. 

To these outward and visible signs, our Blessed 
Saviour has joined wonderful, though hidden 
graces, which produce silently and quietly the 
greatest effects on our souls. What a consola¬ 
tion this is! To know by the sure words of the 
Saviour, that when with true, sincere hearts we 
receive these sacraments, we receive those precious 
graces which are attached to them. Our very 
eyes and ears in this way become witnesses to 
our happiness. For they tell us that the actions 
have been performed, or the words spoken, to 
which our faith assures us that the Lord has 
given a divine grace and power. 

Perhaps you can understand this better by a 
comparison. Suppose a generous-hearted rich 
man to have made the acquaintance of a poor 
family. He likes them, and seeing that they are 
well-meaning, honest people, determines to give 
them a house to live in, and a little garden around 
it. So he brings out pen, and ink, and paper, and 
writes out a deed, then signs and seals it, and 
9 


98 


NATURE OF THE SACRAMENTS. 


the property becomes theirs. What joy and 
gratitude fill their hearts, when they see this 
deed with the good man’s name and seal upon 
it, assuring them that the property is really 
theirs! 

So the things that are done or said in Confes¬ 
sion and Communion, like the signing of the deed, 
assure us that a great property, a glorious pos¬ 
session for the feoul, has become ours. The Lord 
has promised it, and these outward ceremonies 
are the signing and sealing which convey the 
title to us. Blessings and praises, then, be to our 
Lord for these glorious sacraments which He has 
left behind Him in His holy church! 


CHAPTER XXYI. 

CONFESSION A REMEDY FOR SIN. 

The Sacrament of Confession was instituted 
by our Lord for the forgiveness of sin. Nothing 
can be more important for us than this sacra¬ 
ment, if we have fallen into sin. It is sin that 
bars the gates of heaven. With mortal, or griev- 



CONFESSION A REMEDY FOR SIN. 99 

ous sin on tlie conscience, we are, as Scripture 
says, already condemned; and the sentence is 
only removed when the sin is forgiven. Sin is 
the thing to be feared above all else. Great, or 
grievous sins kill the soul outright. If they are 
not destroyed by penance and forgiven, we must 
suffer the pains of hell for them. Every kind of 
sin, whether small or great, is exceedingly to be 
feared. A venial sin, particularly such as is de¬ 
liberately committed, that is, committed with the 
knowledge and consciousness that it is a sin, 
helps to destroy the soul. It may seem to be a 
small matter, but it weakens the love of God in 
the soul, and if persevered in paves the way for 
greater ones, until, little by little, one falls en¬ 
tirely. 

I wish I could impress this upon your minds 
so that you might never forget it. Our Blessed 
Saviour was always urging this point; always 
declaring that sin must be abandoned if we ex¬ 
pect to please God or be saved. “ Fear not those 
that kill the body,” He says, “ and cannot kill 
the soul: but rather fear Him that can destroy 
both soul and body in hell.” What is that for 
which God will destroy the soul? It is sin. 
And sin alone can. 

The Pharisees are described as making long 
prayers, and going through all the observances 


100 CONFESSION A EEMEDY FOE SIN. 


of the Law with the utmost exactness, expecting 
in this way to satisfy God, though they kept on 
committing sin. Just see how our Lord de¬ 
nounces them. 

“ Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypo¬ 
crites, because you are like to whited sepulchres, 
which outwardly appear to men beautiful: but 
within are full of dead men’s bones and all filthi¬ 
ness. So you also outwardly, indeed, appear to 
men, just: but within you are full of hypocrisy 
and iniquity.” 

“ Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, because 
you devour the houses of widows, making long 
prayers ; therefore you shall receive the greater 
judgment.” “ You serpents, generation of vipers, 
how will you escape the judgment of hell.” St. 
Matt, xxiii. 14, 27, 28, 38. 

I am afraid this description will apply to some 
Catholics. I am afraid there are some girls who 
have an idea that if they have some outward de¬ 
votion, if they go to church and pray there, and 
go to the sacraments now and then, they need 
not be so particular to avoid sin. 

Sometimes you hear the mistress of a house 
say: “ There is my girl; she is on her knees 
praying k great deal, but in five minutes after 
flies into such a rage, that you would think her 
possessed of the devil.” “ Our Bridget,” says 


CONFESSION A REMEDY FOR SIN. 101 

another, “ goes to her confession, but the next 
day you will hear words out of her mouth that 
would disgrace a heathen.” 

Another says: “ Mary attends church, and 
says her prayers, but she pilfers and takes things 
that do not belong to her : she wastes a great 
deal of time, and does her work in the most care¬ 
less and slovenly manner. She does not seem to 
understand that the first principle of religion 
requires her to be honest, and fulfill her duty to 
her employers.” 

Now what kind of religion is that ? Such girls 
grossly deceive themselves, but they do not and 
cannot deceive the Almighty. “ If ye love me, 
keep my commandments,” that is, do not sin. 
Do not think that anything else can be put in 
the place of really and truly keeping the com¬ 
mandments of God. Remember the words of the 
Holy Ghost: “ Flee from sin as from the face of 
a serpent.” Ecc. xxi. 2. Flee from sin; hate 
sin ; have a horror and dread of sin ; and make 
it the study of your life to avoid every sin, and 
every appearance of sin. 


9 * 


102 CONFESSION A REMEDY FOR SIN. 


CHAPTER XXVII. 

CONTINUATION. 

Now, the Sacrament of Penance, or Confession, 
is the grand remedy for sin. It is the medicine 
of the Saviour, established to heal the wounds 
of the soul—the great cure for all its sicknesses. 
When we make a good confession, and the priest 
pronounces over us the Absolution, or sentence of 
forgiveness, our sins are forgiven. Nor is this 
all: Confession cleanses the heart, and inspires 
us with a hatred of sin. All that we do to pre¬ 
pare for it lias a tendency to make us see the 
hateful nature of sin, and in the Sacrament itself 
the grace of God confirms this hatred in us in a 
remarkable way. 

The power of this Sacrament comes from the 
words of Christ Himself. He gave to His 
priests, in the most solemn way, the commission 
to forgive sins, saying, “ As my Father hath “sent 
me, so I send you. Receive ye the Holy Ghost. 
Whosesoever sins you remit they shall be remitted 
unto them, and whosesoever sins you retain, they 
shall be retained.” St. John xx. 23. 

Some one may say to you, “ God alone can for- 


CONFESSION A REMEDY FOR SIN. 103 


give sins. Why do you go to a priest, or to any 
man, and not directly to God?” I answer: 
“ True, God alone has the power to forgive sins, 
but it is by God’s power that the priest forgives 
sins, and not by any power of his own. Why 
do I not go to God directly for forgiveness 
rather than to the priest ? Because He has com¬ 
mitted His power to the priest, and told me to 
go to him.” 

It is not for me to set up my own notion in 
place of God’s ordinance. When God said to 
the priest: “ Whose sins ye forgive they are for¬ 
given,” that is enough for me. When I know 
the road he has told me to travel, it is not for 
me to turn off from it, no matter how flattering 
or pleasant any other way may appear. It will be 
very bitter at the day of judgment, after having 
gone astray from following our own notions, to 
hear our Lord’s reproach : “ Why were you not 
satisfied with My way—the way that in My in¬ 
finite wisdom I saw best for you ? and why did 
you, in your short-sighted wisdom, set up another 
in place of it ? ” 

The priest is a man, it is true ; but he is the 
agent of the Lord Jesus Christ. All his acts, 
within the limits of the commission or agency 
committed to him, will be held good by his Lord. 
If he steps out of that he is no longer an agent, 


104 


MUST USE THE REMEDY. 


and his Lord will not hold such acts good. It 
is like any other agency, and the same principles 
govern it. 

Therefore, when the priest exercises his minis¬ 
try of mercy and reconciliation, he applies the 
blood and merits of the Saviour to the penitent, 
for the washing away of sins. When he absolves, 
it is the Holy Ghost that absolves through his 
means, washes us clean with Christ’s most pre¬ 
cious blood, and confirms us in God’s holy love. 
Hence, after Confession, sin seems to have lost 
its hold on our affections, and the devil is afraid 
to bring forward his temptations for some time, 
lest he be driven back in disgrace. 


CHAPTER XXVIII. 

WE MUST NOT PUT OFF THE USE OF THIS REMEDY. 

Confession being thus the remedy for sin, we 
ought thankfully and diligently to make use of it j 
but the devil raises up great difficulties in the way, 
sometimes deterring sinners from approaching 
this sacrament of which they stand in the great¬ 
est need ; sometimes tormenting the good who 



MUST USE THE REMEDY. 


105 


do approach it with so many scruples as to de¬ 
prive them of a great part of its benefit. 

There are persons who are conscious to them¬ 
selves that they are living in the state of mortal 
sin, and who desire to get out of it, and to re¬ 
cover the grace of God, but who are frightened 
at the idea that it is so very difficult a thing to 
do. “ How shall I examine my conscience,” they 
say, “ when I have committed so many sins ? I 
can never recollect them in the world. I cannot 
go through with it.” 

Now all these difficulties are purely in the 
imagination. Set yourself at the work with a 
simple, childlike intention to go through it well, 
and all the difficulties will disappear. If you 
resolve to make a sincere, honest confession, with 
heartfelt sorrow and a firm determination to quit 
your sins and live a good life afterwards, all the 
trouble about Confession will vanish like smoke 
before the wind. 

As to the impossibility of calling your numer¬ 
ous sins to mind, I say, a few days of preparation 
will be sufficient for a confession of a lifetime, 
even though it has been filled with sins. Fervent 
prayers to God from the heart, with now and 
then a look at your past life, will bring up, little 
by little, all that is important to be confessed. 

If ignorant, or unable to apply your mind, a 


106 


MUST USE THE REMEDY. 


good will, and a desire to please God, will draw 
down grace from Him to do all that He requires 
of you. 

Besides, your confessor will give you the bene¬ 
fit of his experience, and make the difficulty very 
slight. Be humble, and sorrowful for sin, and 
determined to quit it, and your confessor will 
feel obliged to help you, or rather to cooperate 
with God in that great work that He is carrying- 
on in your soul. You will be surprised when 
you have finished your confession to see how very 
easy it has been, and you will be inclined to say : 
“ How is it possible that my loving Saviour can 
accomplish such wonderful things for me, when 
I have done so little myself!” 

Do not follow the example of some girls, who 
go year after year with a guilty conscience, and 
when asked, “ Why have you not been to your 
confession before ?” reply : “ I had stayed away 
so long I was afraid to come or, “ I felt there 
was such a load upon me, that I had not the 
courage to throw it offor, “ I was afraid the 
priest would scold me for being so neglectful.” 
Nonsense! nonsense! the whole of this is non¬ 
sense. It is the devil trying to fill your mind full 
of fancies in order to hinder you from doing a 
good thing, a pleasant thing, a delightful and 
easy thing. 


EXAMPLE OF ST. MARY OF EGYPT. 107 

You have suffered, perhaps, untold agony of 
mind, and carried a big burden, which you could 
have thrown off whenever you pleased. The 
same amount of trouble you have taken a hun¬ 
dred times in your worldly affairs, had it been 
given to God, would have been sufficient to have 
relieved you entirely. Jesus Christ would at 
once have taken all that guilt away from you, 
had you only applied to Him in the way that He 
has prescribed. 


CHAPTER XXIX. 

EXAMPLE OF ST. MARY OF EGYPT. 

For the consolation of all who may be troubled 
with such fears, and to confirm what I have said, 
let me give you the example of St. Mary of 
Egypt. This great saint, who attained to such a 
wonderful purity of heart and astonishing sanc¬ 
tity in her old age, was in her youth quite as re¬ 
markable for the wickedness and vileness of her 
life. From the age of twelve, for sixteen years, 
she was a scandal and offence to the Christian 
name by her abominable life. In the midst of 



108 EXAMPLE OF ST. MARY OF EGYPT. 


her career of wickedness, she saw, one day, a 
number of pilgrims taking ship for Jerusalem, to 
visit the holy places, which our Lord had sancti¬ 
fied by His life and precious death. 

She determined to join herself to the company, 
not from any pious motive, but in order to carry 
on her wickedness with more facility. When 
the ship arrived, the pilgrims went up to the 
church to venerate the Holy Cross on which the 
Saviour died, and Mary, all hardened and wicked 
as she was, went up with the rest. 

With bold face she was pushing in at the door, 
but an invisible power stopped her short at the 
threshold. Do what she could, she could not 
enter. She went away and came back to try 
again, but it was of no use. She was filled with 
fear, and the grace of God entered her heart. 
She recognized her own vileness and sinfulness, 
and tears began to flow down her cheeks. 

She turned to the Blessed Virgin, whose statue 
was placed at the entrance of the church, and 
said : “ 0 Holy Virgin, mother of the Word made 
flesh, so pure and humble and chaste, intercede 
for me. Procure for me, a vile creature, the 
grace to go in and adore the Holy Cross on 
which thy Son shed His blood, and I promise no 
more to return to my bad life, but to do penance 
in any way that may be most pleasing to God.” 


EXAMPLE OF ST. MARY OF EGYPT. 109 

Her prayer was heard, and she found after¬ 
wards no difficulty in entering and adoring the 
Holy Cross. Then her heart filled with contri¬ 
tion, she commenced the penance which God the 
Holy Ghost inspired her to do, in order to make 
amends for her sins, and establish herself iii His 
fear and love. 

That very day she started for the desert coun¬ 
try beyond the river Jordan. She arrived at night¬ 
fall at the bank of the river, where there was a 
church of St. John the Baptist. Now, notice what 
follows—she received Holy Communion that day. 
Her sighs and tears and prayers as she travelled 
along the road had prepared her. The enormity 
of her life was before her in all its dark colors. 
With simplicity of heart, and the single thought 
of declaring her sin the best she could, so as to 
forsake it forever, she made her confession. 

It was enough: she told her sins as well as 
she could ; she answered her confessor with sim¬ 
plicity, and her confession was finished. There 
was no need to tell her to come again. It was 
made just as well that once as if she had come 
back twenty times, and better. 

“ But may be she was a very learned woman, 
who had been so well instructed that she knew 
how to make her confession perfectly.” Such was 
not the case. It was quite the contrary. She 
10 


110 EXAMPLE OF ST. MARY OF EGYPT. 

could not read a word, and seems to have been 
a very ignorant person, as we may well suppose 
her to have been, considering how careless and 
sinful she had been from a small girl up to the 
time of her conversion. 

No : her example shows how ready God is to 
give sinners abundant grace to make a good con¬ 
fession, and to remove every difficulty when He 
sees a good will. “ But did not St. Mary get so 
scrupulous that she had to repeat over her con¬ 
fession afterwards a number of times?” Not at 
all. She lived in the desert fifty-seven years in 
penance and prayer. Her confidence in God’s 
goodness and mercy, and her consciousness of her 
own sincerity, were sufficient to put away all 
vain and silly scruples, so that her peace and 
tranquillity of soul became almost angelic. 

Any girl who comes to Confession with sim¬ 
plicity and earnestness as St. Mary did, no mat¬ 
ter how much she may have sinned, will find it 
easy, as Mary did, and will receive from God 
graces similar to those that Mary received. 

Let us thank God for this consoling Sacrament 
of Penance, and, when we return from it cleansed 
and strengthened, say, with the Blessed Virgin, 
“ My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit 
exult in God my Saviour, who hath had regard 
to the humility of His handmaid. For He who 


SCRUPLES. 


Ill 


is powerful hath done great things for me, blessed 
be His holy name.” St. Luke i. 46. 


CHAPTER XXX. 

SCRUPLES OF THE GOOD CONCERNING CONFESSION. 

If the enemy of our souls strives to keep sin¬ 
ners away from Confession by magnifying its dif¬ 
ficulties, he endeavors also to discourage and 
harass the penitent who frequents the sacrament 
by groundless fears and scruples. 

These scruples and torments are either in refer¬ 
ence to the declaration of their sins, or their dis¬ 
positions in regard to them. Such persons feel 
so deeply the importance of salvation that they 
desire to have a certainty about it which it is not 
good for them, nor according to the holy will of 
God, that they should have. 

Though such fears are natural, they must be 
put aside, and not dwelt upon nor made much of, 
when they stand in the way of our peace of mind, 
or the real, genuine love of God. I will say some¬ 
thing about them that you may understand their 
nature, and the folly of them. 



112 


SCRUPLES. 


There are some who are always tormented lest 
they should have omitted something in their con¬ 
fessions. They seem to fancy that if by any 
chance a considerable sin should entirely escape 
their memories and never come up again, it 
would remain unforgiven, and appear against 
them at the judgment. Just as if God, the Infi¬ 
nite Goodness, could ever condemn any one for 
what was not his own fault. Such an idea is 
entirely absurd. 

No doubt, a good girl when she first begins to 
enter seriously into God’s service will do her best 
to have a clear conscience, and will not willing¬ 
ly allow any considerable sins to remain uncon¬ 
fessed. But one confession made with such inten¬ 
tion is enough to put her in a state of grace, as 
everything that can hinder God’s grace is re¬ 
moved by a sincere and contrite confession. 

After such a confession it is God’s will that we 
should be free from all over-anxiety about our sal¬ 
vation, and it is contrary to His will, that we 
should worry, and fret, and be troubled in mind. 
If we have forgotten anything of importance, it 
does not makaus lose God’s grace. We should 
remain in the utmost tranquillity until the next 
confession, when the forgotten sin can be de¬ 
clared : for although it is forgiven, it is necessary 
to confess it, if it lias not been confessed already. 


SCRUPLES. 


113 


Again: many give themselves much more 
anxiety about the examination of their conscien¬ 
ces than is necessary. Of course, all grievous sins 
must be confessed, but a good girl will hate and 
abhor such sins so much that I suppose she will 
rarely, if ever, fall into them. I suppose, if she 
has unfortunately sinned in such a way, that she 
will immediately enter into herself and grieve 
over it, and be only too anxious to confess it. 
As soon as she begins to prepare for confession, 
it will be uppermost in her mind, and there will 
be no danger of her forgetting it. 

As to smaller sins, our examination of con¬ 
science need not be scrupulous and anxious : on 
the contrary, it ought to be entirely tranquil and 
peaceful. Think over your sins and faults, and 
be as sorry for them as you please; that is 
all very well; but do not imagine that the chief 
good of confession is in being sure not to leave 
out anything. 

This is not the case. If you are sorry for 
everything that displeases God, and declare all 
your grievous sins, and such of the others as you 
deem most hurtful and injurious, you do well— 
and better than if your whole mind were set on 
a minute and particular declaration of every 
small matter. 

Sometimes, while the priest is speaking to you. 

10 * 


114 


SCRUPLES. 


of something very important to your soul, some 
danger you must avoid, or some practice of piety 
he sees useful to you, he will be interrupted in 
the very middle of his advice by something like 
this : “I neglected my morning prayers some¬ 
times or, “ I have been out of patience •” or, “ I 
have been fretful.” 

This is making confession a matter of form, 
and forgetting the spirit of it; like the Pharisees 
of old, who put everything in the most minute 
observance of the smallest ceremonies, while 
they paid little attention to really cleansing and 
purifying their hearts from attachment to sin. 

Your time is better employed in sorrow and 
regret for what is wrong and defective, in holy 
resolutions to amend your lives, and to give your 
hearts to God more perfectly, than in a scrupu¬ 
lous and over-anxious examination of conscience* 

In the same way, the desire to be constantly 
repeating over confessions that have been already 
well made, seems to me calculated to do no 
good, but rather to keep the mind in constant 
trouble and anxiety, when it ought to be putting 
a loving trust in God. It is making God “ a 
hard master,” exacting to the last farthing, when 
in truth He is a kind Father, and has long ago 
forgiven us. 

There is a secret pride about it, too, as if it 


SCRUPLES. 


115 


were by our own force and strength that we 
were to look for forgiveness, and not in the lov¬ 
ing mercy of God. 


CHAPTER XXXI. 

SCRUPLES CONCERNING CONTRITION. 

Many good girls are also often troubled about 
their contrition or sorrow for sin. They fear 
they have never had the right kind of sorrow, 
and that their confessions are of no value on 
that account. I venture to say, that those who 
fear this very much are the very ones who have 
no cause to fear. This fear shows a desire to 
do God’s will, and a grief at the very idea of not 
doing it, and what is that but true sorrow for 
sin ? 

Contrition does not consist in feeling, for we 
cannot always feel as we would wish to, but in a 
firm determination to do God’s holy will, and 
to hate and abhor what is contrary thereto. 

Seeing that our sins are contrary to His will, 
we sincerely regret them; they are a grief to 



116 


SCRUPLES. 


us ; we wish most heartily that they had never 
been committed, and we are determined that 
they never shall be committed again. 

You ma) seem to yourselves to be cold and 
without feeling ; yet if your contrition is of this 
kind, it is a far better proof of God’s being 
pleased with you than the shedding of a torrent 
of tears would be. 

Tears sometimes flow very lightly and on small 
occasions, and they dry up quite as readily. The 
virtue and goodness of religion is not at all in such 
tears. On the contrary, the deepest and strongest 
acts of the will are generally those which are 
the calmest and most tranquil. The noisy brook 
is very shallow, while the still water runs deep. 

When we read of the martyrs of old giving 
their blood and their life rather than burn incense 
to false gods, because they knew that this was a 
sin, we see what an abhorrence they had of 
sin, and we are sure that they hated their own 
past sins, and grieved over them with the most 
sincere contrition. If you in the same way are 
disposed to deny yourselves all that may be 
necessary in order to avoid sin, even though it 
should go much against your inclination—that is, 
if your will is heartily set against sin—you need 
have no anxiety about your contrition ; you may 
be sure it is all right. 


SCRUPLES. 


117 


The best way to be sure of always having a 
true contrition for your faults, even the slightest, 
is to exercise yourselves well in constant desires 
after God’s love, as I have already recommended 
you. You know what the Scripture says : “ No 
man can serve two masters, for either lie will 
love the one and hate the other, or hold to the 
one and despise the other.” If God is truly the 
master of your soul, there is no fear but you will 
hate the devil and all his works, and as soon as 
you see that anything whatever is contrary to 
the love of God you will drive it from your heart. 

If you say : “ I won’t be impatient as I have 
been before or, “ I will be more careful of my 
tongue, not to speak in a passionand at the 
same time do not cherish a warm desire to please 
God in all things, I fear all your resolution will 
soon be forgotten. But keep your heart and soul 
directed to God, and you will be attentive to 
guard against these and all other faults. 

When you have a very great desire to please 
your mistress you are not apt to forget any part 
of your duty, and you do it well, but when the 
desire is wanting, you may make a resolution a 
hundred times to do this or that, and forget it. 

A girl who desires to catch the eye of others 
by her dress never forgets to look in the glass, nor 
to arrange her hair or her ornaments. She has 


I 

118 WE MUST HAVE THE SPIRIT OF PENANCE. 

no need to make a resolution not to forget these 
things, for her desire keeps her memory wide 
awake. 

So keep a burning desire to please God in your 
mind, and your memory will be quick in regard 
to sin or faults, and your will strong. “His 
delight is in the law of the Lord and in His law 
lie will meditate day and night,” says the Scrip¬ 
ture. Ps. i. 2. Put your delight in loving God, 
and the thought of His law will be present be¬ 
fore you day and night. 


CHAPTER XXXII. 

WE MUST HAVE THE SPIRIT OF PENANCE. 

In regard to the penance or satisfaction that 
is imposed in the Sacrament of Confession, I would 
observe that it should of course be done faith¬ 
fully ; but over and above this, we should en¬ 
deavor to do penance by all the actions of our 
lives, principally by putting up with the crosses, 
troubles, trials and afflictions, which God may see 
fit to send upon us. 

We need, all of us, to do penance ; for our sins 



WE MUST HAVE THE SPIRIT OF PENANCE. 119 

and faults are more than the hairs of our heads, 
and what is the little penance imposed on us in 
Confession ? A few prayers, a few recitals of the 
Rosary, a slight deprivation or self-denial. Truly, 
it keeps up the principle of penance in the sacra¬ 
ment and reminds us solemnly of our duty j but, 
after all, how inadequate it is, and out of propor¬ 
tion to the number and greatness of our sins! 

God imposes His own penance as He sees fit 
and good for us. Oh, let us not stand in the way 
of His designs for us by refusing to accept His 
penance, by complaining and fretting under it, 
or by seeking to escape it amid the dissipations 
and distractions of the world. 

How short-sighted we are ! God looks upon 
us with eyes of love and proposes a very precious 
gift for us, a splendid diamond that shall sparkle 
for all eternity. It comes in the shape of a trial, 
an affliction, or a disappointment. All we have 
to do is to look through it, right up to God who 
has allowed it to happen, and to say : “ Praise 
and glory be to God in this as in all things 
“ If we have received good things from God why 
shall we not also receive evil.” Job ii. 10. 
When we have done so we have united ourselves 
to Him more closely than we could have done 
had all happened according to our desire. 

Instead then of complaining and grumbling at 


120 WE MUST HAVE THE SPIRIT OF PENANCE. 

what God permits to befall us, let us be thankful 
and take it as a sign that He has not forgotten 
us ; but that He is watching over us with all the 
interest of a father, desiring our salvation, and 
holding out to us the means of attaining it. 

I am convinced that the reason why many souls 
are lost, is, that they will not submit to these 
penances. Penance is necessary to purify their 
souls and destroy the evil root of sin in them, 
but they will have none of it; they go so much 
on the principle of self-indulgence and self-love 
that God’s love can find no place in them, and 
God’s grace is thrown away on their hard and 
sterile hearts. 

Let us remember always these blessed words 
spoken by the priest when he imparts the Abso¬ 
lution. He says : “ May the Passion and Suffer¬ 
ing of our Lord Jesus Christ, the merits of the 
Blessed Virgin Mary, and of all the saints, and 
whatsoever good you shall do, or evil you shall 
suffer, be to you for the remission of your sins, 
the increase of grace, and the reward of eternal 
glory.” The sufferings of this life work out for 
us, if taken in the spirit of penance, what St. 
Paul calls “ an eternal weight of glory.” 

Take then with patience and joy everything 
disagreeable, everything painful, everything 
against your will, the loss of friends or of prop- 


WHAT IS HOLY COMMUNION. 


121 


erty, or of health, or anything whatever, as a 
penance for your sins, from the hands of Jesus 
Christ; as a filling up of what is wanting in your 
sacramental penance, and you will be rewarded 
for it. It will give you a foretaste of heaven even 
now in your soul, and heaven itself hereafter. 

These are the chief things regarding the Sac¬ 
rament of Penance which I have deemed it more 
especially useful to say to you. As to other mat¬ 
ters, which may be of equal importance, you will 
find them sufficiently explained in your Prayer 
Books, or books of instruction, such as the Mis¬ 
sion Book. Many of you, no doubt, have learned 
them in your catechisms when you were children. 
Let us now consider some of the things in regard 
to Holy Communion which it will be most' pleas¬ 
ing and profitable for us thoroughly to under¬ 
stand and to apply to our souls. 


CHAPTER XXXIII. 

WHAT THE HOLY COMMUNION IS. 

The Holy Communion is the greatest of all 
the sacraments, because it contains under the 

11 



122 


WHAT IS HOLY COMMUNION. 


appearances of bread and wine the Author of all 
the sacraments, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. 

Our Lord was not satisfied with giving us the 
other sacraments, though full of wonderful graces. 
He determined to put the crowning stone to His 
work by giving Himself to us. He ascended 
into heaven, but He is still with us in the sacra¬ 
ment of the altar, and will always remain with 
us until the end of the world. 

I dare say you will be pleased to read a short 
explanation of the way in which our Lord has 
accomplished such great things. 

On the very last night before He suffered 
death for us on the cross, He and all His 
apostles were assembled in an upper room. They 
ate their last meal together, and our Saviour 
conversed with them about all that was to hap¬ 
pen to Him. He bade them all farewell in the 
most affectionate and loving manner, as a father, 
about to depart on a long and painful journey, 
would do to his children. 

When this was over, He solemnly took bread 
in His hands and blessed it, and gave it to them, 
saying these words: “ Take, eat, this is My 
Body.” Then He took the cup containing wine, 
and said: “Drink ye all of this, this is My 
Blood.” When He spake these words, “ This is 
My Body,” “ This is My Blood,” that which He 


WHAT IS HOLY COMMUNION. 123 

said really became a fact. What He held in 
His hands became His Body and His Blood. It 
was bread before, but on speaking the word it 
was bread no longer ; it became His Body. It 
was wine before, but ceased to be wine at the 
Lord’s word, and became His Blood. Such is 
now the faith of the church, and such has been 
the faith in all ages. 

Now you may ask: “ What is meant by the 
Body of the Lord, and the Blood of the Lord ? 
By both these expressions is meant, the true, 
living Body of Christ. That is, the Body of the 
Lord, together with His Soul and His Divinity. 
In short, the Lord Himself, perfect and complete. 
All the qualities of bread and wine, the look, 
the taste, the smell, remain just as they were 
before; yet there is no bread and wine; it is 
the Lord’s Body and Blood, the Lord Himself. 

“ How can these things be ? ” That is a ques¬ 
tion which will be often asked, not by the good 
Catholic, who believes simply on the Word of 
the Lord, but by those who are strangers to the 
faith. I do not doubt many a good girl will be 
asked this question by a Protestant mistress or 
acquaintance. 

The answer is : It is by the power of God, 
who can do all things. We might ask those who 
put this question : “ Please tell me how the Lord 


121 


WHAT IS HOLY COMMUNION. 


of heaven and earth can be contained in the 
little babe of Bethlehem, crying and mourning 
on the straw ? ” But the Wise Men of the East 
did not ask the question : “ How can it be ? ” 

They fell down on their knees and adored Him. 

Or, “ Tell me how it was that the Lord, with 
His Flesh and Blood, could pass through the 
closed doors, and appear suddenly among His 
disciples?” He certainly did so, for they felt the 
wounds in His hands and in His feet, and found 
His body as solid and real as that of any other 
person. 

The only answer they can make to these ques¬ 
tions is: “ It was by His divine, almighty power.” 
Just so ! and by the same divine, almighty power 
He is really and truly in the Sacrament of the 
Eucharist under the appearances of bread and 
wine. Hear what St. Cyril of Jerusalem says 
so beautifully about it. “ When He, therefore, 
pronounced and said of the bread, £ This is My 
Body/ who shall dare, after that, to doubt? and 
when He, the very same person, so clearly de¬ 
clared : £ This is My Blood/ who shall ever dare 
to hesitate to say that it is His Blood? He 
formerly at Cana of Galilee changed water into 
wine, which resembles, in some measure, blood, 
and shall we consider Him unworthy of belief in 
changing wine into blood ? ” 


WHAT IS HOLY COMMUNION. 125 

But I know every Catholic girl who loves her 
faith, will have the same spirit that St. Jane 
Francis of Chantal had when she was a little 
girl. A Protestant gentleman came to her 
father’s house, and in course of conversation 
ridiculed the doctrine that the Blessed Sacra¬ 
ment is really our Lord’s Body. The little girl 
could not endure this. Indignation filled her 
heart. The blood reddened her cheeks. “ What!” 
she said, “ do you say the Son of God is a liar ? 
Did He not say, ‘ This is My Body/ and how do 
you say it is not His Body ?” He tried to paci¬ 
fy her by little presents, but she threw them into 
the fire. “ So,” she said, “ will all burn in the 
eternal fire who willfully deny the truth of God’s 
word.” 

What a blessed thing it is to believe that the 
Lord of Glory is, as the Council of Trent says, 
really, truly, and substantially present in the 
Blessed Sacrament: to believe that we may go 
to see Him at the altar where He is: that we 
may lay all our wants before Him, talk with 
Him, learn to love Him : that He comes to us in 
Communion at the altar, and is brought to us at 
our homes to go with us through the pains of 
sickness and through the valley of the shadow 
of death. 

I do not envy those who do not believe. They 
11 * 


126 


EFFECTS OF COMMUNION. 


rob themselves of the greatest consolation it is 
possible to have in this dreary and miserable 
world. “ Oh,” said a Protestant minister not 
long ago in a sermon to his people, “ if we could 
only suppose that the Lord was in some way 
really and bodily present among us as we kneel 
in the church, how our hearts would leap with 
joy and glow with a fire of devotion!” 

What his heart yearned for, that we know for 
certain we have, in the bosom of the one holy 
Catholic church. Now let us see the effects of 
the Blessed Sacrament on the soul. 


CHAPTER XXXIY. 

EFFECTS OF COMMUNION. 

The Lord instituted His sacrament under the 
appearance of bread. Why did He choose bread 
rather than anything else ? Because bread is our 
principal and best food—the staff of life, as it 
is justly called. 

Now, as bread, when it is eaten, is changed 
into our flesh and blood, and goes through every 



EFFECTS OF COMMUNION. 


127 


part of our body to make us strong and well, so 
the Blessed Sacrament enters the soul, nourishes 
it, and makes it strong and healthy. As the 
bread is changed into our flesh and blood to 
nourish us, so we are changed, in our souls, into 
Christ. 

All the dispositions of our souls become like 
those of Christ. Everything bad in us is cor¬ 
rected, everything good in us is strengthened. 
As bread makes the body to grow to its full size, 
so the Blessed Sacrament makes all virtues to 
grow in us until we reach the full measure of 
holiness that God designs for us. 

Without food, we should die ; the principle of 
life would not remain in our bodies. So the 
Lord has said of the Blessed Sacrament: “Except 
ye eat My Flesh, and drink My Blood, ye shall 
not have life in you. He that eateth My Flesh 
and drinketh My Blood hath everlasting life, 
and I will raise him up at the last day : for My 
Flesh is meat indeed, and My Blood is drink in¬ 
deed. He who eateth My Flesh and drinketh 
My blood abideth in Me, and I in him. As the 
living Father hath sent Me, and I live by the 
Father, so he that eateth Me, the same shall also 
live by Me.” St. John vi. 54-58. 

The Blessed Sacrament is then everything to 
us. It is the means of keeping the principle of 


128 


EFFECTS OF COMMUNION. 


life in the soul; that everlasting life, unto which 
body and soul must be preserved until the hour 
of death! 

It is the medicine of the sick soul, tenderly 
nursing it, and giving it strength against all the 
dangers that threaten it with death. 

It is the food of the healthy soul, to make it 
stronger, and keep it from getting weak, that is, 
forgetful and careless in regard to what ought to 
be ever before it, the eternal truths, the principal 
things for which we live. 

How magnificent the simple words of our Lord 
Jesus, when He began to speak of this sacrament, 
“I am the bread of life!” Yes, it is He, the 
Lord of Glory, that comes into our souls in the 
sacrament to be the bread of life to us. What 
may we not ask of Him when He comes ? what 
may we not expect to receive ? The All-Power¬ 
ful, the All-Good comes to and visits our souls on 
purpose to do us good, able to do everything, 
willing to do everything ; with unspeakable 
love, desiring to do everything for us. 

Oh, dearest handmaids of the Lord! with 
what desire and love you should long to receive 
Holy Communion! If you want to form an idea 
of the benefits of receiving Holy Communion, 
consider the beautiful little example related in 
the Gospel of St. Matthew of the woman who 


PREPARATION FOR COMMUNION. 


129 


was healed of the issue of blood. I cannot do 
better than use the very words of Scripture : 

“ And behold a woman who was troubled with 
an issue of blood twelve years, came behind 
Him and touched the hem of His garment, for 
she said within herself: ‘ If I shall but touch 
His garment I shall be healed/ But Jesus turn¬ 
ing around, and seeing her said : * Take courage, 
daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole/ And 
the woman was made whole from that hour/ 7 St. 
Matt. ix. 20, 21, 22. 

The poor woman expected great things from 
merely touching the garment of Jesus. She was 
not deceived. What may we not expect, devoutly 
receiving the same Jesus into our souls ? 


CHAPTER XXXV. 

PREPARATION FOR COMMUNION. 

The foregoing example explains also the spirit 
in which we should prepare ourselves for Holy 
Communion. Many have an idea that the 
proper preparation consists in saying many 



180 


PREPARATION FOR COMMUNION. 


prayers out of a prayer-book, or going through 
the various acts of faith, hope, charity and con¬ 
trition which they find laid down for the pur¬ 
pose. 

This is all very well if those acts are made at 
the same time with the heart, that is, with real, 
genuine sincerity, knowing what they mean, and 
meaning to do what they say. Merely reciting 
them over, with the idea that this is all that is 
required, is a very poor preparation indeed. 

They may be read over with some feeling, and 
yet we may not not have a sincere disposition to 
love God and keep His commandments. One 
may have no disposition to amend his faults, 
may even think that this feeling good a little 
while until after Communion is over, is enough, 
and will leave him free to live a life of sin, until 
he sets to work to feel good again, in order to 
prepare for another Communion. 

False piety of this kind is an abomination in 
the eyes of God. “This people honoreth Me 
with their lips, while their heart is far from Me.” 
St. Matt. xv. 8. 

The true preparation for Communion consists, 
first, in being in a state of grace, or, in other 
words, being free from mortal sin. To receive 
Communion knowingly in the state of mortal sin 
is a sacrilege, or unworthy treatment of the Holy 


PREPARATION FOR COMMUNION. 131 

Sacrament—a very grievous sin itself—for, as 
the Holy Ghost says: “ What fellowship can 
there be between justice and injustice ? ” 2 Cor. 
vi. 14. 

How can God come into the heart which belongs 
to Satan? This is what the holy apostle, St. 
Paul, speaks of, calling it “unworthy communion.” 
“ He that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth 
and drinketh judgment to himself, not discerning 
the Lord’s Body.” 1 Cor. xi. 28. 

To the evil disposed, who have no sincere dis¬ 
position to continue always free from mortal sin, 
I would say: Take care how you receive. Turn 
about; change your hearts; cleanse your souls 
from sin before you presume to take the Lord’s 
Body, that you may not eat and drink judgment 
or damnation to yourselves. 

To the good girl, who lives habitually in the 
grace of God, I would say: You are already 
prepared. You could even go to Communion 
without confession; but I know very well you 
would not desire to do that, for even if it be not 
required to confess, you would wish to do it, and 
to be as well prepared as possible. 

Make, then, with pure heart, confession of your 
faults, humbly desiring to amend them all, small 
as well as great. If any kind of cursing, be it 
ever so light, has fallen from your mouth, deter- 


132 


PREPARATION FOR COMMUNION. 


mine to stop it. If temper has overcome you 
sometimes, resolve to keep in mind the sweetness 
that Jesus desires of you, to put down impa¬ 
tience, murmuring, and all such things. Deter¬ 
mine to watch over and correct faults of neglect, 
wastefulness, and carelessness in performing your 
duty. 

Make up your mind that truth, in all things, 
shall be told, and lying and deceitfulness be 
trodden under your feet, as unworthy one who 
receives the God of truth. 

With such desires and such resolutions, ap¬ 
proach your confession, and you will make just 
the preparation the Holy Ghost puts in the 
mouth of King David—“ I will wash my hands 
in innocence and so will I approach Thy altar, O 
my God.” Ps. xxvi. 6. You will wash your 
heart with the Blood of Christ in Holy Confes¬ 
sion ; come out of it pure and innocent, and ap¬ 
proach the altar, lovely in the eyes of the Lamb 
of God, Jesus, who loves above all things the 
whiteness of innocence, and purity from the 
stains of sin. 

After Confession, bear in mind that the time 
for your Communion is near, remember Who it is 
that is coming to visit you, and consider it the 
greatest and happiest event of your lives. Now 
is a good time to make acts of faith, contrition, 


PREPARATION FOR COMMUNION. 


133 


love, humility, etc., either out of a book, or, if 
you can, out of your own hearts. 

Promise, over and over again, to the Lord, 
that you will be forever a most true and faithful 
servant of His, and that it shall be the study of 
your lives to observe such conduct and do such 
tilings as you think will be most pleasing to 
Him. 

These generous resolutions will be most pleas¬ 
ing to Jesus, and as good a preparation as you 
could make. An entire offering of your whole 
heart and soul, mind and body, will and under¬ 
standing, to be guided and governed by the holy 
will of Jesus Christ, made with your whole soul, 
will be the most acceptable offering you can 
make your Lord when you receive Him. This 
is enough to say about the preparation of the 
soul. 

In respect to the body you know you must be 
fasting from food and drink from midnight before 
the morning of your communion. Should you 
have accidently taken anything, it is no sin, but 
you will have to put off your communion until 
another day. 


12 


134 BEHAYIOR AT AND AFTER COMMUNION. 


CHAPTER XXXVI. 

BEHAVIOR AT AND AFTER COMMUNION. 

Go to the altar neatly and modestly dressed 
out of respect to the Lord you are to receive, as 
the Scripture says, “ Let your modesty be known 
unto all men.” Phil. iv. 5. Show piety and 
modesty in the way you approach and go away 
from the altar. 

And take care to spend some time in devout 
prayers and thanksgiving after Communion. This 
is the very best time of all to pray, because Jesus 
is with you, on purpose to hear you. He is 
always present, it is true, for He is God who is 
everywhere, but He gives us a peculiar claim to 
be heard and to get our requests when He comes 
to see us. 

When a great person goes to see one in hum¬ 
ble circumstances, he does not go with empty 
hands ; so our Lord has abundance of graces to 
bestow on us, when we ask for them after Com¬ 
munion. 

The late Queen of Belgium, Maria Amelia, was 
a pious Christian ; she thought more of following 
Jesus Christ’s example than of all her royal 


BEHAVIOR AT AND AFTER COMMUNION. 135 

splendor. So she used to slip out of her 
palace, dressed like a poor woman, with a large 
basket on her arm filled with warm clothing for 
the poor, witli medicines and delicate food for 
the sick. 

She would slip down into the cellars and 
under-ground rooms, where the poor people live, 
to comfort them and give them what they needed. 
And she smiled on them with so much affection, 
and spoke such kind words to them, that she 
made them forget all their poverty, for a little 
while, in the sunshine of her presence. 

This is what our Lord Jesus Christ does for 
us. He forgets who He is and comes into our 
hearts, poor and dark as they are, with nothing 
but sympathy and kindness for us. The fact is, 
what the Queen of Belgium used to do, was only 
a little spark which had kindled her heart, out 
of that fire that burns all the time in the heart 
of Jesus Christ. 

Spend then some time, at least fifteen minutes 
if you can, or half an hour, in talking with your 
Saviour and begging for all you need for body 
or soul, but especially for the soul, which is your 
great concern after all. 

Sometimes we see people going to the altar to 
receive, and going out of church immediately 
after, without even waiting a short five minutes. 


136 BEHAVIOR AT AND AFTER COMMUNION. 


I cannot help thinkimg in such cases of what 
happened once to our Saviour. 

Ten men who had the leprosy came to Him 
and asked Him to heal them. He told them to 
go and show themselves to the priest, and as 
they started off to go, they were all healed. But 
nine of them kept on and only one turned back 
to give thanks to the Lord for His great kind- 
nesss. “ Oh!” said the Saviour: “ Ten were 
healed, but where are the nine ? only one has 
turned back to give thanks.” St. Luke xvii. 
13, 14. 

And after the thanksgiving is over, and you 
have gone home, from time to time during that 
day remember, and cast a grateful look upon the 
Saviour for His goodness. St. Aloysius used to 
do this for a whole week after receiving. Oh, 
what benefits you will receive from such com¬ 
munions ! 

Go, then, and receive regularly, and as often as 
your circumstances will be permit. 


HOW OFTEN TO RECEIVE COMMUNION. 137 


CHAPTER XXXVII. 

HOW OFTEN SHOULD ONE RECEIVE COMMUNION. 

But how often should one receive communion ? 
That is for you to judge, with the advice of your 
confessor. As a general rule for good girls who 
have the chance, I should say once a month 
would not be too often. It is the period chosen 
by most of those who are striving to lead devout 
lives, and experience shows, that to communicate 
as often as that, has the happiest effects on the 
soul. Most of our pious confraternities are 
established on the principle of monthly com¬ 
munion, and the Church encourages the practice 
by many indulgences granted to them. 

Besides, monthly communion does not usually 
interfere too much with what one has to do. 

Would that all our Catholic girls would take 
up this habit of frequent communion. I am sure 
a thousand evils that now exist among them 
would speedily be stopped. Some go more fre¬ 
quently, and if the heart burns for the love of 
God and with desire to receive the Saviour in 
Communion, there is no reason why it should not 
be gratified. Some of the saints received every 
12 * 


138 HOW OFTEN TO KECEIYE COMMUNION. 

day. The early Christians did so. As the 
Scripture says: “ They continued in the daily 
breaking of bread by which is understood the 
Communion. 

St. Catherine of Sienna was one of those who 
were all on fire with the love of Jesus Christ, 
and she longed for Communion so much, that 
finally she got permission to receive every day. 
This did not seem exactly right to a very worthy 
bishop, who perhaps did not understand how 
holy she was, and who was not accustomed to 
see people receive so often. 

One day, he said to her, “ I am afraid you are 
not doing as you ought in receiving so often, for 
I remember what St. Augustine says about it: 
That to receive every day is a thing I neither 
praise nor blame, but to receive every Sunday I 
exhort you.” She replied, “ Well, Right Rever¬ 
end Father, if St. Augustine does not blame me, 
why do you ?” He was so much struck by the 
force of this answer that he had no more to say. 

But it is very few who like these saints can 
go every day. It is out of most people’s power 
to go as often as that if they would. Indeed, 
very few can go as often as once a week, there¬ 
fore I think once in the month suits for most 
people better than any other period. 

I do not like once in the quarter, or more 


HOW OFTEN TO RECEIVE COMMUNION. 139 

rarely, so well, but it may be that one cannot go 
oftener ; in such case, God will take the will for 
the deed. 

He looks at the heart, and if he sees in it an 
ardent desire to receive, though, in fact, we do 
not receive, for want of opportunity, he will not 
allow us to lose anything by it, but make it up 
to us abundantly in some other way. 

So it was with the hermits of the desert, with 
St. Mary of Egypt and others who were far 
away from any priest, and who could receive 
only here and there, at long intervals, when they 
had the opportunity, yet they are among the 
greatest of the saints. 

To close the subject, let me relate to you how 
St. Juliana received Holy Communion on her 
death-bed. Although of a noble family she gave 
up all splendor and riches and chose for herself 
the portion of Jesus Christ, poverty and labor. 

Her hard and severe life and continued absti¬ 
nence brought on a weakness of the stomach, so 
that she was not able to retain the food she took, 
and on that account she could not receive Holy 
Communion. 

Every one, however, noticed her wonderful 
patience and cheerfulness amid her distress. No 
complaint came from her mouth, except one. She 
found it hard to be deprived of the Blessed Sac- 


140 HOW OFTEN TO RECEIVE COMMUNION. 

rament. Her heart was fixed on Jesus her Sa¬ 
viour, and, amid her pains, could she only have 
received Him she would have been content. 

She begged her confessor that as she could not 
receive, he would, at least, bring the Blessed 
Sacrament and place it on her breast. Her en¬ 
treaties were so earnest that at last he yielded 
and complied with her request, but at the very 
moment he did so the Bread of Heaven disap¬ 
peared, and Juliana with serene and joyful coun¬ 
tenance breathed out her soul. 

Those who were present could scarcely believe 
what they saw, until, when her chaste body was 
prepared for burial, the exact form of the sacred 
Host, bearing the image of Jesus crucified, was 
found stamped upon her left breast near the 
heart. 

What an example of the desire of the devout 
soul to receive, and of the desire of Jesus to 
come to all those who long to receive Him. 


ON SPECIAL DEVOTIONS. 


141 


CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

ON SPECIAL DEVOTIONS. 

“ But please tell us, now that you have spoken 
of daily prayer and the sacraments, what special 
devotions we ought to practice.” 

We read in the lives of the saints of their 
having different special devotions and reciting 
special prayers according to their devotion. For 
example, St. John Gualbert forgave the murderer 
of his brother who begged forgiveness through 
the Five Sacred Wounds of our Lord to which 
St. John had a special devotion. 

St. Juliana had a special devotion to the 
Blessed Sacrament, and through her exertions 
the feast of Corpus Christi was established in 
honor of it. 

Ven. Margaret Mary Alacoque was devoted to 
the Sacred Heart of our Lord, considering es¬ 
pecially His love for us all. 

St. Teresa speaks in the highest terms of de¬ 
votion to St. Joseph, and of the benefits derived 
from his intercession. All the saints have had a 
special devotion to our Blessed Lady.. Some of 
them as the “ Mother of Sorrows,” some as the 


142 


ON SPECIAL DEVOTIONS. 


“ Refuge of Sinners,” or the “ Help of Chris¬ 
tians,” or to some particular mystery or event of 
her life. 

“ What special devotion would you recommend 
to ns ?” To answer this question we must look 
into it a little. What is the meaning or idea of 
any special devotion whatever ? It is nothing 
more nor less than a special or particular way of 
raising the soul to God, either by viewing Him 
in a particular light, as, for example, in some cir¬ 
cumstances of the life of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
His Agony in the Garden, His Five Wounds, or 
His Crucifixion, or as present in the Blessed 
Sacrament, or the special devotion to the Holy 
Ghost. Or else in considering God's goodness 
and love and power as shown in the life of the 
Blessed Virgin Mary, or of the saints, and beg¬ 
ging their prayers in our behalf. 

God must be the end of all our devotion. To 
learn to know Him and to love Him better, is 
the sum and substance of all that we should pro¬ 
pose to ourselves in all our prayers and all our 
devotions. 

All special devotions of whatever kind they 
may be, should be performed with the idea of 
uniting ourselves more perfectly to God, and not 
because others have performed them, or out of a 
mere routine or habit. 


ON SPECIAL DEVOTIONS. 


143 


If they really nourish the soul and promote 
solid virtue they may be practiced ; if they have 
not an effect of this kind they are better let 
alone. 

It appears to me that when a person is loaded 
down with a great number of special devotions 
and prayers, the soul is likely to be hindered 
rather than assisted in uniting itself to God by 
them. 

And the reason of this is, that God Himself is 
not brought enough in view, but the mind rather 
taken up with such a number of things that it 
becomes either wearied out and distracted, or 
else we become merely creatures of a world of 
formal observances. 

If a special devotion grows up naturally in 
our hearts, as, for example, when from reading 
the glorious actions of a particular saint, we are 
powerfully excited to follow his example and 
pushed on to love God greatly, then it is very 
good, and we hope that saint will take an inter¬ 
est in us and beg his or her prayers. We love 
that saint and we set a great value on his love 
and assistance. We see from this how unfounded 
the idea is that special devotions lead us away from 
God,—that they are in opposition to devotion to 
God. Why do we love to visit the good, listen 
to their conversation and beg their prayers? 


144 


ON SPECIAL DEVOTIONS. 


Because we are anxious to know and love God 
better, and these things help us on. 

Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, or to St. Jo¬ 
seph, or an apostle or saint, is of precisely the 
same nature. We love and admire them because 
they are so much like God and so beloved b}^ 
Him. We imitate them because their conduct 
was agreeable to God, and we beg their prayers 
because they are friends of God. 

If devotion of a special nature is not produced 
by such a motive, it is good for nothing. If it 
takes the place of, and hinders the course of the 
soul to God, I am ready to admit that it is 
hurtful. 

Suppose, for example, that a person should be 
running about begging the prayers of pious peo¬ 
ple, without praying himself, we should not com¬ 
mend his conduct, although it is a good thing to 
ask the prayers of the pious. 

So I am inclined to think that one who is oc¬ 
cupied with a great round of litanies and special 
prayers to different saints, without thinking much 
of God, is on a false track of devotion. 

But abuse of a thing, or excess in it does not 
hinder the proper and discreet use of it, and 
special devotions to the Blessed Virgin and the 
saints are very profitable. Let us then refer 
them all to God, practice them all with a view 


OF DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED SACRAMENT. 145 

to God’s love, and the Holy Ghost will direct us 
when to use them, and how far each one of us 
may profitably carry them. 

I will say something of devotion to the Blessed 
Sacrament, and to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and 
to the saints, all of which must find their place 
in a true life of devotion to God. 


CHAPTER XXXIX. 

OF DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED SACRAMENT. 

When the priest at the altar during the Mass 
pronounces the sacred words of consecration, that 
which was bread before, ceases to be bread, and 
becomes the Body of Christ. He then raises 
this sacred Body, which is no less than Christ 
Himself, in his hands, above his head, the bell is 
rung, and all the faithful bow themselves down 
in humble adoration of their God and Saviour. 

Under the appearance of bread, is the Lord 
Jesus Christ, at whose very name “ every knee 
shall bow of things in heaven, of things on the 
earth, and of things under the earth.” And after 
13 



146 OF DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED SACRAMENT. 

tlie consecration Jesus remains in tlie sacred par¬ 
ticle, or Host, as it is called, until it is con¬ 
sumed. 

In tlie sacred Host, within the Tabernacle, is 
Jesus. There He remains night and day, and 
as long as He is there, He is entitled to be wor¬ 
shipped and adored the same as when He was 
raised on high during the Mass. 

By devotion to the Blessed Sacrament I mean, 
besides Mass and Communion, adoration, love, 
and prayers to Jesus at other times, while He re¬ 
mains on our altars. 

As soon as we come into church what do we 
see ? A light burning before the altar, to indi¬ 
cate the presence of God in the Sacrament. Not 
God surrounded by thunder and lightning in His 
majesty to judge us, but God in a humble, silent 
form, to love us and do us good. 

What an emotion of awe and veneration should 
fill our souls when we think that God Himself is 
present? what love and gratitude when we 
think how He is present, and why ? The Al¬ 
mighty God is present, but as one of us, and our 
best friend. 

Just as if we could see Jesus Christ sitting 
there with a most gentle and benignant coun¬ 
tenance, calling out to us and telling us to come 
nearer and tell Him all about our affairs, what 


OF DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED SACRAMENT. 147 

weighs on our hearts, and what we want Him to 
do for us. Oh, then, when we are in church, do 
not let us forget for a moment who is there. Do 
not let us be so disrespectful to the Lord as to 
talk or laugh, but think of Him and pray to 
Him. 

How dreadful is this place,” said Jacob, when 
the Lord appeared to him, “ this is no other but 
the house of God and the gate of heaven.” Gen. 
xxviii. 17. And Moses put off the shoes from his 
feet when the Lord showed Himself: “ Take off 
thy shoes,” said a voice to him, “ for the placo 
thou standest on is holy ground.” Ex. iii. 5. 

Surely, when one has once been told of the 
presence of Christ in the Sacrament, I should 
think he could never, to the longest day of his 
life, forget himself so far as to indulge in the 
slightest light or unbecoming behavior. 

You have heard how the magnet draws to it¬ 
self pieces of iron ; they fly to it and stick 
closely to it, because there is a power in that 
magnet which they cannot resist. So your hearts 
ought to be drawn to the tabernacle where Jesus 
is. 

Oh, how I love to see the altar rail surrounded 
with devout men and women praying. They get 
as close to Jesus as they can. How lively is 
their faith, and how strong their devout prayers, 


148 OF DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED SACRAMENT. 

and how ardent their desires to be pleasing to 
Him. Then is the time grace is pouring into 
their souls. 

After all, this is the great devotion of the 
church. What can compare with it ? You can¬ 
not be too devout to the Blessed Sacrament. 
When you get the opportunity, pay a visit to the 
Sacrament during the week. 

If you had a very dear friend you would want 
to see that friend every day ; so desire to go and 
see the dearest and best friend you have, every 
day. 

Go and nestle up as close as you can to that 
friend who can protect you from all harm and 
fill you with consolation. 

If you cannot actually make the visit to the 
church, make one in spirit by turning towards 
the place where the Sacrament is kept and de¬ 
voutly lifting up your soul to Him. 

If the priest should happen at any time to 
open the tabernacle when you are in church, 
kneel at once in adoration of the Saviour ex¬ 
posed to view. 

If the Sacrament is brought to any house 
where you are, take care that everything shall 
be prepared beforehand : the room swept and 
put in order, a table with a clean white cloth, a 
Crucifix and a lighted candle upon it. 


OP DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED SACRAMENT. 149 

In all things and in all places show that you 
know well the honor and respect due to your 
Lord and Saviour. 

Another devotion most agreeable to God and 
useful to yourself, is what is called spiritual com¬ 
munion, that is, to excite a longing desire in 
your heart of receiving Communion, and to love 
the Lord and to pray to Him the same as if you 
had actually received. 

Many holy persons have found great comfort 
and help from this practice. Blessed Joanna of 
the Cross declared she received the same graces 
from her spiritual as from her actual communion. 
“ Oh, excellent method of communicating !” she 
exclaimed, “ in which one does not need to make 
confession, nor any permission, nor the help of 
any but God alone.” 

How beautiful to be able as often as one likes 
to draw near to Jesus and receive Him in spirit, 
with a lively faith, almost as one would at the 
altar itself. Many souls will find a great help 
in such kind of devotions. 


13 * 


150 DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 


CHAPTER XL. 

ON DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 

Next to devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, 
which is beyond comparison above and before 
all others, as God is above all creatures, comes 
the devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the 
mother of our Divine Saviour. 

Why should we cherish a tender love for her ? 
Because she is the mother of our Lord. How 
can we love the Lord without loving her, who is 
His own mother ? How foolish it is then to try 
to separate the love of the one from that of the 
other, or the devotion of the one from that of 
the other! 

All true love and true devotion to the Blessed 
Virgin is grounded on our love for our Lord 
Jesus Christ. She took care of Him, she is the 
most beloved by Him, she was the most worthy 
to be His mother, and she is His mother. 

Of course, then, she is above all the saints, 
and deserves especial love and veneration. And 
she has always had it, and always will have it, 
according to her own prophecy : “ Behold, from 


DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 151 

henceforth all nations shall call me blessed.” 
St. Luke i. 48. 

And as the Blessed Virgin is nearest and dear¬ 
est to Jesus Christ, so is her power to help us 
greatest. How can the Saviour refuse anything 
to His own mother ? If we desire anything 
from Him we cannot do better than to add to 
our own prayers those of His mother, and beg 
her to intercede for us. 

Pray earnestly and frequently to the mother 
of God : expose all your wants to her, and that 
you may be agreeable to her, cherish a deep and 
tender love to her. And what kind of love is 
most suitable ? That of a child to the best of 
mothers. 

When St. Teresa lost her mother her heart 
was breaking with grief. She was very young 
at the time, and in the simplicity of her heart 
she knelt down and said to the Blessed Virgin : 
“ Now my mother is dead, I have no one to take 
care of me, you must be a mother to me as long 
as I live,” shedding a torrent of tears at the 
same time. What a good mother the Blessed 
Virgin proved herself to St. Teresa ; and what 
a consoling thought it is that a poor girl amid 
all her temptations, severe trials and afflictions, 
can have the blessed thought of that dear mother 
in Heaven, watching over her with loving eyes, 


152 DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 

and with all a mother’s interest, in her truest 
welfare. That surely is enough to make a gleam 
of sunshine in the darkest day for the soul. 

But if we would have this good mother for our 
own, we must take care to make ourselves agree¬ 
able to her. And how is that best done ? I will 
tell you. Love her Son dearly, and she will love 
you dearly. And how shall her Son be loved 
dearly ? By following his own example that he 
set us while he lived upon earth. By following 
the pure, the humble, innocent, charitable, exam¬ 
ple his own mother the Virgin herself has set 
us. 

Ask yourself frequently, How would Jesus 
Christ, how would the Blessed Virgin act under 
these circumstances ? how would they be pleased 
to see me act ? and then act accordingly. “ Learn 
of me,” says our Lord, “ for I am meek and humble 
of heart.” Of what use is it to recite devotions, 
to say the Rosary, or wear the Scapular, when 
you pay no attention to imitate the conduct of 
the Blessed Virgin ? 

Some wear the Scapular and lead wicked 
lives. They say, “ One cannot be eternally lost 
who wears the Scapular.” Now, one who en¬ 
courages himself to go on in wickedness, with 
the idea of being preserved from the consequences 
of sin by wearing the Scapular, instead of getting 


DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 153 

any good from it, will only be making his dam¬ 
nation more certain. 

The Scapular was intende4 as a badge of the 
true, faithful servants of Mary, who strive to live 
lives worthy of such a badge and of such an ex¬ 
ample. Great graces are annexed to wearing it 
with such an intention, but none to a supersti¬ 
tious and wicked use of it, such as I have de¬ 
scribed above. 

A true soldier honors his uniform by his con¬ 
duct. He stands to his colors as to his life, and 
so those who wear the Scapular should remember 
that they must walk worthy of that blessed habit 
and uniform of the Blessed Virgin with which 
they have been invested. We may think that a 
person of this sort, who wears the Scapular, can¬ 
not be lost, but not so of any other. 

Living, then, in such a way as to please the 
mother of God, we may invoke her assistance 
with great confidence in all our temptations, for 
she is able and willing to help us. Particularly 
is this the case in those against the virtue of 
purity. This most pure Virgin seems peculiarly 
ready to help us to keep that virtue which was so 
peculiarly her own. In all temptations, at dhe 
very first thought, fly to her protection. Pro¬ 
nounce the holy names of Jesus and Mary, and 
you will be strengthened so that you will not 


154 


DEVOTION TO SAINTS. 


give the least consent to such a horrid tempta¬ 
tion. 

Pray a good deal to the Holy Virgin, either 
out of books, reciting her litany, little office, or 
other prayers ; or use that excellent devotion, the 
Rosary; or pray out of the heart, talking fami¬ 
liarly and lovingly with her, and thinking over 
her life, and how yours may be like it. 

Devotion to our Lady will make you under¬ 
stand better what the Lord has done for you in 
becoming a little child, and having a real woman 
for his mother, and deepen your love for Him. 
So that the church rightly considers this true 
devotion to the mother of God of very great con¬ 
sequence in reference to the love of God, which 
is the aim and end of our existence here in this 
world. 


CHAPTER XLI. 

DEVOTION TO SAINTS. 

Pray to the saints. They stand in the pres¬ 
ence of God, and are his dear friends. They 
have gone through what we will have to go 



DEVOTION TO SAINTS. 


155 


through. They know well our clangers and our 
trials. Let us pray for their intercession, and 
they will pray for us. 

Let us imitate their virtues, their humility, 
patience, meekness, charity, etc. What flesh 
and blood, by the grace of God, lias done, can be 
done again by the same grace. To think of the 
saints, and examine their lives, is a wonderful 
encouragement to us. 

I cannot understand why those outside of the 
church should entertain so much repugnance to 
the doctrine of the intercession of the saints. It 
seems to be the very first and foremost of all 
their objections to our Holy Faith, that we pray 
to the Blessed Virgin and the saints, and yet 
nothing is more natural and more in accordance 
with reason and religion, or more consoling and 
encouraging. 

How often we hear such expressions as these: 
“ You Catholics are idolatrous ; you pray to the 
saints. You Catholics place the Virgin Mary 
and the saints in place of God ; in place of the 
Saviour. Do you not pray to them ? “ Yes.” 
“Well, then, what need is there of further proof? 
You confess all that we have accused you of.” 
Not at all ; we pray to the saints, but it by no 
means follows that we put them in any way in 
place of God or of our Saviour. 


156 


DEVOTION TO SAINTS. 


If it did follow, then it must equally follow 
that we are guilty of idolatry if we ask a friend 
or pious acquaintance to pray for us. We put 
that friend or acquaintance just as much in the 
place of the Saviour, when we ask his prayers, 
as we do the saint when we ask his prayer. 
Every prayer to the Blessed Virgin or the saints 
is a prayer for their help, or for their prayers 
witli God, or what is called “ intercessionthere 
is nothing about it, in any way, that goes beyond 
the help or intercession of a friend in this 
world. 

“ But how do we know they can hear our 
prayers ? Is not that making them equal to 
God, to suppose them to know everything that 
goes on in the world, in all its different parts at 
the same time ?” 

No, it is not. I know a vast number of things 
that go on all over the world, a short time after 
they happen, by looking into the newspaper of a 
morning ; but I know very little after all; and 
if a saint, whose soul is with God, in his very 
presence, should look into God’s all-knowledge, 
and see there, as in a mirror, all that is going on 
in the world, that he cares to know, or is inter¬ 
ested about, or all about the salvation of all the 
souls struggling in the world, it would not be 
much, after all, compared with the infinite wis- 


DEVOTION TO SAINTS. 


157 


dom of God. People who make such objections 
ought to think a little bit on God’s infinite wis¬ 
dom, and they will answer their own objections 
without troubling any one else with them. 

The Scripture tells us we are encompassed 
with a cloud of witnesses. “ And therefore we 
also having so great a cloud of witnesses over 
us, laying aside every weight and the sin that 
surroundeth us, by patience let us run to the 
fight proposed to us.” Hebrews xii. 1. 

Who are those “ witnesses over us ?” Abra¬ 
ham and Isaac and Jacob, Joseph and Moses, and 
all those who in old times lived by faith in God’s 
fear, and are now dead. I do not see how a 
word can be said any further to the effect that 
the saints do not know what is going on here. 
They witness it all, or we must give up the Bible 
altogether. 

And, indeed, our own hearts tell us how 
proper and right it is, that our friends in the 
other world should know and feel in regard to 
all that interests our eternal salvation. We re¬ 
joice in the thought that a mother, or sister, or 
brother, is watching over us from the heaven of 
happiness, and helping us in our troubles. 

I have heard it myself from the lips of Pro¬ 
testant ministers, in their prayers at funerals, 
and all the bystanders approved of it, although 
U 


158 


TRUE IDEA OF SERVICE. 


it was nothing more nor less than the Catholic 
doctrine of the intercession of saints which these 
same people are so shocked at in the practice of 
the Catholic Church. 

Think over the example of the saints, particu¬ 
larly of those which instruct you the most and 
excite you most strongly to the love and service 
of God. Thus you will keep up the “ communion 
of saints,” and draw down upon yourselves many 
blessings. 


CHAPTER XLII. 

TRUE IDEA OF SERVICE. 

Now, my dear girls, if there be any grumblers 
among you, I am not going to leave you a single 
word to say. I don't care how many complaints 
you have to make, or what troubles you have to 
endure. If you have the crossest old woman for 
a mistress that ever lived, or ever so hard work 
to do, or low wages, or poor fare, and no thanks, 
I don't care : I am determined to make you own 
up that it is all first-rate, and could not be 
better. 



TRUE IDEA OP SERVICE. 


159 


I am going to shut your mouths. And how 
shall I go to work to do it, particularly as there 
are some whose mouths it is not so easy to shut ? 
In the same way that they shut up a child’s 
mouth : by putting a big sugar-plum in it. I am 
going to show you the sweetest and most heart- 
cheering words, spoken by the Holy Ghost, about 
your service: words which ought to make the 
tears start to your eyes when you read them, and 
your hearts leap with joy. 

Listen to these words : “ Servants, obey in all 
things your masters according to the flesh, not 
serving to the eye as pleasing men, but in sim¬ 
plicity of heart, fearing God. Whatsoever you 
do, do it from the heart, as to the Lord and not 
to men.” Col. iii. 22. 

Understand well the meaning of these words. 
All your service is here taken by the Lord as 
if it were His own service. How happy you 
must think those holy women were who went 
around with our Lord Jesus Christ, ministering 
to His wants, and following Him wherever He 
went, to prepare His food and lodging ; but you 
see by these words that you can do the same 
thing for our Lord Jesus Christ, if in simplicity 
of heart and a pure intention, you do the cooking 
and make the beds for the family in which you 
live. 


160 


TRUE IDEA OF SERVICE. 


Iii the last day, if you do your duties with 
this spirit of doing all for the Lord, and not for 
men, the Lord will say to you: “ Come, ye blessed 
of My Father, possess the kingdom prepared for 
you from the foundation of the world. For I 
was hungry and ye gave me to eat; I was thirsty 
and ye gave me to drink,” etc. St. Matt. xxv. 
35. Then you will say: “ Lord, when did we 
ever see Thee hungry and feed Thee, thirsty and 
give Thee drink ?” and the Lord shall reply : 
“Did I not tell you to perform all your duties at 
service in simplicity of heart as to Me, and not 
as to men ? You have done so, and I reckon it 
all as done to Myself.” 

When the work comes hard, and you are tired 
out scrubbing the floors, or washing the clothes 
or the dishes, think, “ I am doing all this for my 
Lord Jesus Christ.” Not a single drop of sweat, 
not a single pain or ache is without His notice. 
Do such work with cheerfulness, as being glad 
to suffer something in Christ’s service, and all 
your heartache, at least, will disappear. You 
will be wonderfully sustained and supported, no 
matter what may be your trial. 

The Lord Jesus Christ knew well that a poor 
girl at service would have a good deal to suffer, 
and a good deal to put up with. His heart was 
filled with compassion, and He determined to 


TRUE IDEA OF SERVICE. 


161 


raise her condition so high as to be above and 
beyond all its sorrows and miseries, just as a 
high mountain in the clear blue air is above all 
the smoke and filthy fogs of the low swamps. 

How has He done this ? By raising her ser¬ 
vice to the dignity and greatness of a service 
done to Himself. Kings and queens cannot be 
more than servants of the Most High. You 
then are raised to the level of kings and queens ; 
and more, for the Lord has never so lovingly 
promised to accept their service as He has yours. 


CHAPTER XLIII. 

TRUE IDEA OF SERVICE. HOW TO CORRESPOND 
TO IT. 

But in order to gain all the advantage the 
Lord offers you, you must bear in mind the con¬ 
ditions He requires of you : “ Servants, be obe¬ 
dient in all things to your masters, not serving to 
the eye as pleasing men, but in simplicity of 
heart, fearing God. Whatsoever you do, do it 
from the heart, as to the Lord, and not to men.” 

That means, Do your duty, and do it well. 

14* 



162 


TRUE IDEA OF SERVICE. 


Do it as well as if you saw the Lord looking at 
you, and were doing it for Him. Do not at all 
consider who your employer may be, but look at 
Christ. 

If the mistress is ill-favored and ill-tempered, 
or handsome and gracious, let it be all one to 
you. Our blessed Saviour is beautiful and gra¬ 
cious enough, and, after all, it is He whom you 
are serving. 

Suppose the mistress is overbearing and hard 
to please—it ? s “ Bridget, here/ 7 and, “ Bridget, 
there/ 7 without rhyme or reason ; never mind— 
every time you go here or go there, the Lord is 
pleased and delighted with your ready and cheer¬ 
ful obedience to that overbearing and difficult 
mistress. 

Suppose your mistress is fussy, and thinks she 
knows a good deal more than she does know, 
and wants to have her own way, when your way 
is better; let her have her own way; obey 
readily and pleasantly; that is the way to please 
the Lord. 

Suppose she scolds you unjustly, when you 
have committed no fault; bear it patiently ; let 
the storm blow over. For it is the Lord that 
has placed her over you, and who says : “ Obey 
in all things 77 —that is to say, where there is no 
sin or wrong. 


IIOW TO CORRESPOND TO IT. 163 

If } T ou think there is just cause of complaint, 
or you could better your condition elsewhere, 
your are at liberty to leave ; but as long as you 
are there, observe this line of conduct, and your 
service will be all for the Lord. 

You know how it is when you look out of the 
window at a pleasant prospect; you do not stop 
to consider the glass you look through. So do 
not stop to consider the faults or imperfections 
of your employers ; see only Jesus, your Master 
and your best Friend, shining through them. If 
you live with a Jew, or a Heathen even, that 
makes no difference ; only consider that they re¬ 
present the Lord to you. Try in every way to 
show obedience, respect, and duty to them. 

If a little, dirty, impudent girl were to bring 
a message to you from your mistress, you would 
not consider who brings it, but who sends it, and 
you would obey it. So think—no matter who 
your employers may be—that all their commands 
have been sent by the Lord to you, through their 
means, and that you are fulfilling ^them for Him. 
That is the way the saints looked at things, and 
they delighted in nothing so much as to do that 
kind of work which others despised. 


1G4 


TRUE IDEA OF SERVICE. 


CHAPTER XLIY. 

TRUE IDEA OF SERVICE. EXAMPLES. 

St. Amedee, who was of a noble family, a 
relative of the Emperor Conrad, begged per¬ 
mission to clean the shoes of his brethren, and 
rub them over with stinking grease. One day, 
his uncle, a nobleman, came to see him, and found 
him greasing these old, dirty, rough shoes. Do 
you think he was scandalized at the sight ? Not 
a bit. He thanked God that his nephew under¬ 
stood so well the blessing and the nobility of 
being a servant of Jesus Christ. 

In the good old Catholic times, when faith 
was warm, masters and mistresses understood so 
well the advantages of serving others, that they 
themselves used sometimes to become servants, 
and wait upon their own servants, and serve the 
poor. 

St. Harvia, the wife of the Duke of Silesia, used 
to be taken sometimes for a servant, while she 
was feeding and waiting upon more than fifty poor 
persons in the great hall of her husband’s castle. 

How different is this conduct from that of 
many a girl, who, when she is sometimes called 


EXAMPLES. 


165 


upon for a service a little out of her line, and 
especially if she considers it a little lower than 
her ordinary work, says, “ I’m not going to 
black shoes for anybody,” “I’m nobody's nigger.” 
And that, too, when she knows it is right to call 
on her under the circumstances, and that she 
ought to do it without a word. Such a one for¬ 
gets all about serving the Lord. 

I remember well a lady who was not above 
sweeping out the church of God herself, mildly 
asking a Catholic girl to help her, and what did 
she get for an answer? “I’m nobody’s nigger!” 
You see this girl was not willing to be a servant 
of Christ, even in His own house. 0 Pride, what 
do you not lead people to do! 

Of St. Mary Magdalen of Pazzi, it is said, 
“ She regarded God in all whom she served, and 
taught her sisters to do the same, saying : ‘ You 
should think yourselves unworthy to serve souls, 
who are the tabernacles of the Holy Ghost, and 
see God in all.’ Although she was a choir-sister, 
and not obliged to work with the lay-sisters, she 
chose to do it. Nothing pleased her better than 
to make the bread, scour out the pots and kettles, 
and do the heavy washing. She would rise in 
the night, before a soul was stirring in the house, 
make the fire, draw the water, and put on the 
clothes to boil. She used sometimes to send 


166 


TRUE IDEA OF SERVICE. 


around and gather up all the dirty clothes in the 
day time, and go down and wash them all out 
at night. Whenever others were working with 
her, she took on herself the hardest of the 
work, and would insist on doing it all herself, 
if they would let her. She would say: ‘Now 
I know you are tired, go and rest, and let me 
do it. 7 77 

Yet she was a lady by birth and education, 
and had everything in her father’s house that 
heart could wish. Why did she do all this? 
Simply because she considered Christ in all she 
did. In the simplicity of her heart she did it as 
if it was all done for the Lord. 

St. Vincent of Paul was obliged to enter the 
service of Mr. De Gondi, to educate his chil¬ 
dren. Now listen to the way in which he dis¬ 
charged his duties. “ To sanctify himself in this 
new office, he proposed to himself to honor Jesus 
Christ in the person of Mr. De Gondi, the 
Blessed Virgin in that of his wife, and the dis¬ 
ciples of our Saviour in those of the servants of 
the family. 

“ He candidly acknowledged that this manner 
of acting, which seemed extremely simple, was of 
great service to him; and that seeing God alone, 
under different aspects, in all the persons with 
whom he was engaged, obliged him to do nothing 


EXAMPLES. 


167 


before men which he would not have done before 
our Lord Jesus Christ, if he had had the happi¬ 
ness of seeing Him, and talking with Him when 
He was on the earth.” (Life of St. Vincent of 
Paul.) 

Now, girls, I would like to ask if I have not 
been as good as my word, and shut the mouths 
of all the grumblers and complainers ? Have I 
not shut up their mouths with the sweetest sugar¬ 
plum ? 

In all your hard work, all scoldings and fault¬ 
findings, in all that touches your pride or your 
feelings, have I not put you right in the presence 
of Jesus Christ, who whispers in your ears: 
“Never mind, my good girl, it is not for Mrs. 
Smith, nor Mrs. Jones, nor Mrs. Anybody-else 
you have to do this, it is for Me, your Saviour, 
who loves you dearly. The time is soon coming 
when you will be amply rewarded for it all. Do 
it patiently, do it humbly, do it without repining: 
in one word, with a good will, and I accept all 
as done to Myself.” 

Now, to sum up all that has been said in an¬ 
swer to the question: In what spirit should you 
discharge your duties ? I say : Look neither to 
the right nor to the left, but look at Jesus Christ 
above, and do all for Him, and as you think will 
best please Him. 


168 


ON THE CHOICE OF A PLACE. 


CHAPTER XLY. 

ON THE CHOICE OF A PLACE. 

Many a Catholic girl comes out from Ireland, 
where she has been good, has attended to her du¬ 
ties, and to all appearances has loved her religion, 
and yet after a little while at service in this 
country, all her piety seems to have disappeared. 

She does not go to Mass, she goes gadding 
about the streets day and night, talks all kind 
of talk, spends her wages foolishly, and becomes 
what you may call a wicked girl; at least she 
is anything but in the grace of God. 

A good deal of this has been brought about by 
her getting into an unsuitable place, where bad 
companions or evil example has destroyed her 
good principles. 

A really good girl, who strives to obey the 
voice of God in her heart, that is, her conscience, 
will, I feel sure, sooner or later, get a good 
place, for she is worth her weight in gold to her 
employer. But she may, at first, have to take 
up with places that are not very good, until her 
true merit is found out. She ought, however, to 


OX THE CHOICE OF A PLACE. 169 

be on tlie lookout to find a place suitable to her, 
and what kind of place is that ? 

I can only give some general directions, and 
then leave the rest to each one’s prudence and 
good sense. You Should try to get a place in 
which you will be favorably situated for leading 
a virtuous and holy life. That is, certainly, the 
very first thing to be attended to. 

Some, and it may be, not bad-intentioned girls, 
arc so carried away with the idea of high wages, 
that they think of nothing else. A dollar a 
month, or a half a dollar, carries the day with 
them, although they run the risk of losing what 
money cannot buy, that is, purity and innocence 
of soul. 

Girls, in good places, where they have every 
privilege of attending Mass, where they have 
time and fine opportunities for prayer, where 
they have a quiet, respectable home, get their 
heads turned on hearing that they can get a trifle 
more wages somewhere else. Nothing will do 
but they must go there, and they find out that 
they cannot get to Mass at all, or very seldom ; 
that the work is harder, and that they are kept 
in a state of confusion the whole time, so that 
they can scarcely pray at all. 

Now, surely, there is no objection to a girl’s 
trying to get good wages. If she can get the 
15 


170 ON THE CHOICE OF A PLACE. 

highest wages going, I do not blame her. She 
has to get her living, and has good uses for all 
she can earn. I do not blame her for desiring 
not to be overworked, and to have a comfortable 
situation. 

But these things are not the first of all to be 
looked out for. We should attend to spiritual 
advantage first—and then we may look to other 
things. “ Seek first the kingdom of God and His 
justice, and other things shall be added to you.” 
St. Matt. vi. 38. 

I would advise you then, in the first place, to 
avoid if possible engaging yourselves in hotels, 
taverns, inns, saloons, or other places where there 
is a crowd of people, and where gambling or 
drinking is carried on. In such places there are 
generally a number at service. Now you know 
the old saying—that one scabby sheep infects the 
whole flock, so when there are many at service 
together, some are almost sure to be bad, and to 
exercise a bad influence on the good. Besides, I 
know very well that a great deal of sin of dif¬ 
ferent kinds is apt to be carried on in such 
places, which makes them unfit for a modest, 
pious young woman. 

Who would like to live with a number of 
others, be obliged to eat at the same table, talk 
with them, and see them constantly, when some 


ON THE CHOICE OF A PLACE. 


171 


of tliem are neglecters of all their religious du¬ 
ties ; others filthy in their conversation; others 
full of bad temper and spitefulness; others full 
of little petty dishonesty, and neglecting their 
duties in the house ? 

What kind of a place is it for a good girl, 
where drinking and carousing, cursing and swear¬ 
ing, and filthy talk is going on all around ? Go 
to no place whatever where you can foresee that 
you will be obliged to live in the midst of open 
and unblushing sin, but where there is at least 
decency, and a chance to take care of yourself in 
quiet. 

To be sure, there are hotels which are respec¬ 
table enough, and I do not doubt that a good 
girl might possibly live a good life in them. I 
have known very good women in such places; 
but, after all, even the best are poor places for 
most young women; a private family is much 
more suitable. 

Among private families, no doubt such as are 
Catholic are to be preferred to others, provided 
they are good and practical. As to careless and 
indifferent Catholic families, I have not a word 
to sa^in their favor: indeed, among them, the 
temptation to become careless and indifferent, 
may be greater than among Protestants. 

And after all, most girls who go out to service, 


172 


ON THE CHOICE OF A PLACE. 


must find situations among those who are not 
Catholic, because the number of Catholic families 
is small compared with the rest. 

Now, among Protestant families, which should 
a good girl prefer ? Those in which she is 
at liberty to attend her religious duties. She 
should always inquire, before she engages her¬ 
self : “ How often can I be allowed to attend 
Mass?” Unless what might be called a reason¬ 
able answer, under the circumstances, is given to 
this question, I should certainly go further and 
try for something more satisfactory. 

Also there should be nothing in the service to 
hinder entire freedom of conscience. No master 
or mistress, who is likely to be a good one, will 
ever think of interfering with the religious rights 
of those in their employ. The same freedom of 
conscience which they claim for themselves they 
will be ready to allow to others. 

Do not engage anywhere where attendance at 
family prayers is required, for it is unjust for 
them to demand it, and improper for you to com¬ 
ply. Say to all such, “ I say my own prayers, and 
will try to discharge my duties faithfully ; more 
than that I cannot and will not do.” If this is 
not satisfactory, go somewhere else. 

If it is all right in regard to your religious 
duties, inquire into other circumstances ; see 


OF MASTER AND SERVANT. 


173 


whether the duties are such as you are able to 
discharge, for you have no right to undertake 
what you cannot perform. Find out how many 
are in the family, and how many companions you 
will have at service. See them if you can, and 
judge whether on the whole you can live with 
them to advantage. 

There are many things which a prudent girl 
can judge of better by her own eyes and ears 
than by what any one can tell her. Let her, 
then, with prayer to God, go about this business 
of choosing a place, with a good motive to start 
on, and all the prudence she is possessed of, and 
do the best she can, with resignation to the 
divine will. God will be sure to place her, not 
perhaps where it is in all respects the most 
pleasant and agreeable to nature, but where it is 
• most profitable and best for her. 


CHAPTER XLYI. 

OF MASTER AND SERVANT. 

Where both master and servant are good 
Catholics, filled heart and soul with a desire to 
15 * 



174 


OF MASTER AND SERVANT. 


do the will of God, and working out their salva¬ 
tion with all the earnestness it deserves, the re¬ 
lation between them becomes a most beautiful 
one. 

The servant endeavors to please his master, 
doing all that has to be done, not because he is 
compelled to do it, but of a good will, remem¬ 
bering the Scripture : “ With a good will doing 
service, as unto the Lord and not to men, know¬ 
ing that whatsoever good every one shall do the 
same he shall receive of the Lord, whether bond 
or free.” Eph. vi. 7. 

He obeys his master in the simplicity of his 
heart, as he would obey Jesus Christ, that is, 
with the utmost respect and affection. Such a 
servant will say to himself: “ My master and 
myself are brothers in Jesus Christ, both re¬ 
deemed by His precious blood, both equal in all 
Christian privileges, both equal in 'God’s sight, 
with whom there is no respect of persons ; and 
whether my master or I shall be highest in hea¬ 
ven will depend on who has been the most faith¬ 
ful in our station on earth. But I must remem¬ 
ber that I have been made by God’s will a ser¬ 
vant on the earth. My dignity and honor, in 
God’s sight, will depend on my not forgetting 
for a moment the position He has placed me in, 
and in behaving accordingly. 


OF MASTER AND SERVANT. 


175 


Such a one will not feel degraded or lowered 
one bit, by obeying the commands of his master. 
He will feel a noble pride and honor in perform¬ 
ing them. No matter what it is he has to do, 
whether it is cleaning out sewers, or feeding pigs, 
or blacking boots, or washing dirty clothes ; it 
makes no difference. All these things are quite 
indifferent in themselves, and when it comes in 
the line of duty to do them, it is a glory and 
honor for us to do them. 

Take a doctor, for example ; let him come to 
visit his sick patient, suppose he wears a gold 
watch and has on white kid gloves, he must dress 
loathsome sores, and he must perform oftentimes 
the most disagreeable offices, and if he does not 
do it, it is a shame and disgrace to him, both in 
the eyes of God and of men. 

So, a good Catholic servant will throw over¬ 
board all foolish and hateful pride, and accept 
from the heart, the position of a servant and all 
that it brings along with it, and simply look to 
do its duties, cheerfully, to the best of his power. 
He will love his employer at the same time that 
he serves him. His employer’s interest will be 
his own. The children of the family will be 
dear to him ; in short, his master’s house will be 
truly his home, and his master and mistress will 
be like second father and mother to him. 


176 


OF MASTER AND SERVANT. 


And the good master will entertain corres¬ 
ponding sentiments towards his servants. He 
will remember the words of the Holy Ghost, 
who, after telling servants what their conduct 
ought to be, says : “ And you, masters, do the 
same thing to them, forbearing threatenings ; 
knowing that the Lord both of them and you is 
in heaven, and there is no respect of persons 
with Him.” Eph. vi. 9. 

Such a master will never forget that his ser¬ 
vants are his brethren in Jesus Christ. To be 
sure, they are inferior to himself in station, but 
that is only for a time, and simply because the 
Lord has arranged it so. By and by, all these 
distinctions will vanish, in the presence of God 
in another world. 

It would not be proper now to treat them as 
equals in all respects, as that would upset the 
whole order of society that God has established, 
but he can treat them with love and affection. 
He can take a real interest for their welfare, 
both of soul and body. 

A good mistress will be anxious that her do¬ 
mestics should attend Mass every Sunday, and 
regulate the household accordingly. She will 
endeavor to have them attend to Confession and 
Communion ; warn them against extravagance, 
light behavior, and bad company. We have an 


OP MASTER AND SERVANT. 177 

example of this in the Prince de Conde, who 
would have his servants attend Mass every day. 
He used to notice even if the smallest boy was 
absent, and watched over their conduct as if he 
felt a responsibility for their souls. 

To a good master his servants will be in many 
respects like his own children. Of courso, then, 
he will “ forbear threatenings,” that is, harsh 
conduct, Mien it is uncalled for. Children must 
be threatened sometimes for their own good, so 
must servants, but the good master will not 
threaten in an unfeeling and domineering way. 
He will' never look down upon and despise those 
under him, but respect them as brethren in the 
Lord. And for a good servant he will feel the 
deepest respect as well as affection. 


CHAPTER XLVII. • 

CONTINUATION. EXAMPLES. 

How beautifully this mutual confidence and 
love is described in the Bible in the case of 
Abraham and his oldest servant, Eliezer, whom 



178 


OF MASTER AND SERVANT. 


he had set over all his goods. Abraham trusted 
him with everything, even to go and choose a 
wife for his son Isaac. He explained to him all 
his wishes, and made him take an oath that he 
would not pick out a wife for his son among the 
heathen women of the Canaanites, but go to the 
country and kindred from whence he had come, 
and get one. 

Now listen to the conduct of this good ser¬ 
vant : When he came to the town where the 
kindred of Abraham dwelt, he made this prayer: 
“ 0 Lord, the God of my master Abraham, meet 
me to-day, I beseech thee, and show kindness to 
my master Abraham.” Gen. xxiv. 12. 

What a love and veneration, what an interest 
in all that concerned his master, is shown in 
these words ! And when he had succeeded, by 
God’s help, in discharging the duty which he 
was sent upon, he was as thankful as if it had 
been his own matter, and he says : “ Falling 
down, I adored the Lord, blessing the Lord God 
of my master Abraham, who hath brought me 
the straight way to take the daughter of my 
master’s brother for his son.” Gen. xxiv. 48. 

The good old man forgets himself in the affec¬ 
tion he bears to Abraham and his son Isaac. 
There is no false pride here, he is not a bit 
ashamed to speak all the time of his master 


OF MASTER AND SERVANT. 179 

Abraham. He never overstepped the limit of 
perfect respect, and yet I am sure there was so 
much fidelity and goodness about him that he 
had pretty much his own way, being ruler, as 
the Scripture says, over all that Abraham 
had. 

Where such feelings exist between masters 
and servants, we find them living together for 
years ; for such masters would feel the loss of 
such a servant almost as the loss of a child, and 
the feeling is the same on the other side. 

“ What a charm,” says the Baron de Prelle, 
“ when masters and servants grow old together ! 
What a joy to old age when it is served by 
ancient domestics, accustomed to its mode of 
life. I have known no house happier in this re¬ 
spect than that of the great Seguier, Chancellor 
of France. All his servants had grown old with 
him, and if we did not always see the same 
faces, we saw always the same persons. As 
their constitutions were not so strong as his 
own, most of them broke down on the way, and 
he saw them die before himself, leaving but little 
behind them, though after forty years service in 
the house of a chancellor.” 

So it is written of the great Empress, the 
mother of Charles the Sixth, that at her death, 
she assembled all her household and took leave 


180 


OF MASTER AND SERVANT. 


of them, oven to the lowest little servant, calling 
them by name. 

Of the lovely little St. Zita, we read that, 
her parents hearing of a pious family among 
the nobility, with whom they felt sure their 
daughter would have a good chance to live 
virtuously, they brought her to them at the age 
of twelve years. 

At first, before her goodness became known, 
she was scolded a good deal, and spoken harshly 
to ; but she accepted all so humbly, that after a 
little while they loved her dearly, and even held 
her in great veneration. There she lived, with¬ 
out ever changing her place, for nearly fifty 
years, until she was carried to her grave. She 
loved the children dearly, and they loved her. 
She was always delighted to do them any kind¬ 
ness. It is said in her Life that she felt like a 
mother to them, and was always ready to take 
the nurse’s place and relieve her of fatigue and 
annoyance. 

Such ought to be the relation between masters 
and domestics, where both are Catholics. But, 
alas 1 that there are so many cases in which good 
Catholic masters are despised or disliked by 
their domestics. Sometimes the very reason 
why a girl is dissatisfied and seeks another 
place, is, because a real interest is felt in having 


OF MASTER AND SERVANT. 


181 


her well cared for in all respects, and in seeing 
her live a good life. 

“ I declare, there is no living in this house, 
where you can’t do anything without being 
brought up for it! What business is it to the 
madam whether I go to Mass or not ? I wish 
she’d let me alone. I declare, I never will live 
in a Catholic family again ; I’ll go among Protes¬ 
tants, where I shan’t always be bothered about 
going to church and going to confession, and 
keeping fast days, and keeping abstinence, and 
this and that. I wish folks would mind their 
own business!” Such is the language of many 
a girl who calls herself a Catholic, but who 
shows little of the spirit of one. 

Another good girl has a first-rate Catholic 
home, where she is liked, and where she gets the 
highest wages, and light work, and every privi¬ 
lege, and where she might live as long as she 
likes. All goes along as well as possible for 
awhile. Then she gets restless. She must 
have a change ; some little foolish annoyance 
perhaps works on her mind, or more likely, a 
mere fancy. She must change her place. 

She gets a notion to go with somebody to 
California, as waitingmaid or cook ; or to Aus¬ 
tralia, or somewhere or other. Off she goes in 
spite of everything, and in a month’s time she 
16 


182 


OF MASTER AND SERVANT. 


would almost give her right hand to be back 
again. 

At other times she will go off to a Protestant 
family, where she gets less wages, has harder 
work, cannot get out to Mass, or to see her 
friends, and all merely out of a light, foolish 
head, that does not seem to have a grain of good 
sense in it. This restlessness is, I have no doubt, 
a kind of sickness, like home-sickness ; and the 
only way to treat it is, to despise it; to pray to 
God, and seek peace in your heart in Him in 
whom alone you can find it. If you change your 
place on account of it, you only make it worse. 

You know how a kernel of corn on a hot 
griddle flies about, jumps here, and jumps there, 
and can’t be still a minute, when it once gets 
going. So it will be with you, if you are weak 
enough to go away from a good place for such 
frivolous and light reasons. 

Put up with a great deal of real difficulty 
when you have got a good place, before you think 
of leaving it. If another girl there is bad, and 
therefore is disagreeable to you, wait awhile ; 
she may be sent off, or go away. 

Remember the proverb : “ A rolling stone 
gathers no moss and the other : “ Go farther 
and fare worse.” Many a girl has found it so, 
to her own sorrow. No master or mistress is 


OF MASTER AND SERVANT. 


183 


absolutely perfect and faultless, any more than 
your are yourself. Don’t fly in a passion then, 
when anything disagreeable happens. If they 
are really good in the main, put up with a defect, 
or fault in them now and then. Overlook it; it 
will all come right in a little while. They have, 
no doubt, as much to put up with from you, as 
you from them. 

If St. Zita had flown into a passion when she 
was scolded unjustly, she would have lost the 
best of places, and the happiest life in the world, 
and never, never, would have become a saint, and 
honored over the whole world as she is now. 


CHAPTER XLVIII. 

CONTINUATION. MASTER AND SERVANT. 

But you may say to me : “ It is seldom or 
never that these most delightful relations be¬ 
tween master and servant can exist nowadays. 
There are few who are bound together by the 
ties of the same faith, and who are actuated by 
such pure and holy motives in their conduct. 



184 


MASTER AND SERVANT. 


“ The employers are, for the most part, Pro¬ 
testant, and many of them very indifferent in 
principle, and very difficult to get along with.” 
Well, now, let us look into it a little. 

Suppose you are in what you might call a good 
place, among those who are not Catholics. They 
respect your religion enough to let you alone 
about it, and afford you all reasonable privileges 
in exercising it. In regard to other things, they 
are kind, and feel an interest in you. What is 
to hinder love and affection towards them ? 
They certainly in such case deserve it. 

I know many instances, where such employers 
would do anything almost for the welfare of a 
good girl living with them. Mutual respect and 
affection can exist here in a high degree. I do 
not say that it will be as great as if they were 
of the household of faith ; that cannot be ex¬ 
pected ; but nothing hinders it from being very 
great. Nothing hinders one from living happily 
and contentedly in such a place all one’s life. 

But suppose the mistress of the house is a 
great lady, and taken up so much with her own 
consequence that she takes little interest in her 
domestics. Suppose she has not the way about 
her, to be on pleasant terms with those of her 
household ; yet is satisfied if things go along 
right, sometimes speaks a word or so, but does 


MASTER AND SERVANT. 


185 


not seem to give herself much trouble about it 
any way. 

Of course, you could not be expected to be so 
much attached to her, in such a case. But you 
can mind your own affairs, and take what good 
words you get in a good spirit;' think well of her 
as far as possible, and thank God that you have 
after all a good home where you can serve Him. 

But now we can suppose something else. The 
mistress is cross and peevish, and finds fault 
when she has no right to. Her temper often 
occasions a good deal of heartburning. Many 
of her ways are excessively disagreeable. 

Still you must remember, in that case, the 
authority she has from God Himself; she is set 
over you while you are in her house,—and as 
you would not be justified in abusing your father 
or mother, even if they were ill-tempered, so you 
are not justified in so far forgetting that you are 
in her service, as to rail against her. 

To sum up all, you should endeavor to show 
your employers respect in all cases ; to feel as 
much interest as you can, as a member of the 
family ; and as much affection and love as is 
possible, considering their character and con¬ 
duct. 


186 DOCTRINE OF SCRIPTURE ON THIS*SUBJECT t 


CHAPTER XLIX. 

DOCTRINE OF SCRIPTURE ON THIS SUBJECT. 

The Holy Scripture clearly lays down this 
doctrine. “ Let servants be subject to their 
masters, pleasing them in all things, not contra¬ 
dicting, not defrauding, but in all things showing 
good fidelity, that they may adorn the doctrine 
of God our Saviour in all things.” Titus ii. 9. 

What does the Holy Ghost say to servants 
who have Catholic masters ? Pay particular at¬ 
tention to the words, for they are full of mean¬ 
ing. “ But they who have believing masters, let 
them not despise them because they are brethren, 
but serve them rather, because they are faithful 
and beloved.” 1 Tim. vi. 2. 

This seems to be very strange advice to give 
a servant,—to tell him not to despise his master 
because he is good and amiable towards him. 
We arc-apt to think that the master despises the 
servant because he is below him, but here we 
see the Holy Ghost warning the Catholic ser¬ 
vant not to despise his Catholic master. What 
can be the meaning of it ? 

I will tell you. The good, kind master or 


DOCTRINE OF SCRIPTURE ON THIS SUBJECT. 187 

mistress puts aside all pride and haughtiness, 
and speaks kindly and with some degree of fa¬ 
miliarity with the servant. Now, when the ser¬ 
vant is proud, and has but little good sense, he 
takes this all wrong, and begins to imagine him¬ 
self as good as his master, and, if the truth were 
known, a little better too. 

He loses respect, and begins to get impudent 
and disagreeable. The Holy Ghost means to 
warn us against such conduct, and says what 
amounts to this : If your master or mistress, in 
wishing to make you happy, and out of Christian 
love and interest in you, does not treat you as a 
mere servant, but as a friend and a child, do not 
take advantage of such treatment to be impu¬ 
dent and disagreeable to them. 

Do not let the devil fill your heart with wicked 
pride, to despise them and disobey them ; but 
rather be more anxious to serve them with faith¬ 
fulness and love, because they are so good and 
condescending to you. 

The same remark applies to every kind and 
loving employer, whether he belong to the 
“ household of faith,” or not. There is the same 
temptation in all such cases to forge! one's self 
through pride, and the same obligations to be 
more humble, respectful, and attentive. 

Now, what is said of unreasonable and ill- 


188 OF DILIGENCE IN SERVICE. 

tempered masters and mistresses ? “ Servants, 
be subject to your masters with all fear ; not 
only to the good and gentle, but also to the fro- 
ward,” 1 Peter ii. 15, i. e., to the cross and ill- 
tempered. “ For this is worthy of thanks, if for 
conscience towards God a man endure sorrows, 
suffering wrongfully. For what glory is it, if, 
sinning and being buffeted, you suffer it ? But 
if, doing well, you suffer patiently, this is thank¬ 
worthy before God.” 1 Peter ii. 19, 20. 

And the example of our Saviour is given to 
add weight to this. “ For unto this you have 
been called ; because Christ also suffered for us, 
leaving you an example that you should follow 
His steps. Who did no sin, neither was guile 
found in His mouth. Who, when He was reviled 
did not revile : when He suffered, He threatened 
not, but delivered Himself to Him that judged 
Him unjustly.” 1 Peter ii. 22, 23. 


► CHAPTER L. 

OF DILIGENCE IN SERVICE. 


The great Apostle, St. Paul, when he stood 



OF DILIGENCE IN SERVICE. 189 

before King Agrippa, gave an account of liis 
conversion and labors. He says that at mid-day 
a great light from heaven shone around him, ex¬ 
ceeding the brightness of the sun, which struck 
himself and his companions to the ground, and 
that a voice spoke to him, telling him that he 
was chosen to open the eyes of the people who 
were in darkness, and to bring them to enjoy the 
lot of the saints in heaven. 

Now he adds, “ I was obedient to the heavenly 
vision, preaching everywhere to the Jews and the 
gentiles.” Acts xxvi. 19, 20. We all know 
how he labored with his whole heart and soul, 
suffering pains, afflictions, fatigues, persecutions, 
almost passing belief, until he closed his eyes in 
death. What was the reason he gave himself so 
little rest ? 

It was because he was directed by the Lord to 
work, and because it was the Lord’s work he was 
doing. Now you have the same reason for dili¬ 
gence and painstaking in your work that St. 
Paul had in his. He was told to work, by a 
voice from heaven. “ He was not unmindful of 
the heavenly vision.” You too have been told 
by a voice from heaven—the voice of the Holy 
Ghost—“ Whatsoever ye do, do it from the 
heart, as to the Lord, and not to men. Knowing 
that ye shall receive from the Lord the reward 


190 OF DILIGENCE IN SERVICE. 

of inheritance. Serve ye the Lord Christ.” 
Col. iii. 24. 

This is the thought of all thoughts to be kept 
ever before the mind; which will give you 
strength and courage to do all that we should 
do, and to do it in the very best way. 

Take, for example, a girl who has work to do 
from morning till night. Early in the morning 
of a washing-day she wakes up. There is a heap 
of clothes to wash ; there is breakfast to get; and 
it may be the chief part of the work of a family 
to do. It will require all her time and strength 
to do it. When she wakes up, it seems a dismal 
prospect to her. “ Oh, dear! how I shall have 
to slave it to-day 1 ” 

But now the thought comes, “ For Jesus Christ, 
Oh, do it cheerfully for His sake.” In an instant 
she is out of bed. “ Oh, yes,” she says, “ I could 
not be better employed.” She draws water, 
makes the fire, fills her kettles; there is not a 
bit of sulkiness or grumbling about it. One 
thing goes off after another. It is astonishing 
how this thought makes her do everything so 
easily and so well. Her appetite is good ; and 
at night she goes to bed, full of good health, and 
with the best conscience in the world. Ah! 
this is the girl who has got the grand secret. 

Yes, my dear girls, if you want to be good 


OF DILIGENCE IN SERVICE. 


191 


and happy, be diligent. Make it a point of con¬ 
science not to neglect your work, nor to do it in a 
lazy or careless way. It is a matter of con¬ 
science, for when you receive wages you are 
bound to give your labor in return. You are 
bound to discharge the duty or office you take 
upon yourself in a perfect manner, or as it is ex¬ 
pected that it should be done. 

And as the Lord will reward you for a faithful 
and diligent performance of it, so He will call 
you to account and judge you if you neglect it. 
This is why the Scripture says, we must not be 
“ eye-servants.” 

What is an eye-servant ? It is one, if I under¬ 
stand it, who does her duty when the master’s or 
mistress’s eye is upon her, but who neglects it 
when their back is turned. One who is very 
plausible to one’s face, who says: “ Oh, yes! ” 
but who cannot be depended upon. Such girls 
do not care, they love their own ease and com¬ 
fort more than they love their plain duty; more 
than they love to please God. 

Go into the kitchen where such a girl works. 
What do you see ? Well, you may seldom see it 
in order. The floor is dirty; unwashed dishes 
and dirty clothes are lying around, when every¬ 
thing ought to be put away. Breakfast, dinner 
and supper are always behind time. 


192 


OF DILIGENCE IN SERVICE. 


Then, you find the potatoes half boiled, or the 
meat burnt so that you cannot eat it. The table 
is half set. The work is always done in a most 
slovenly manner, or not done at all. 

Such a girl is the occasion of a great deal of 
sin. She provokes ill-temper and defrauds her 
employers of what they had a right to expect 
from her. 

The Scripture describes it well: “ As vinegar 
to the teeth and smoke to the eyes, so is the slug¬ 
gard to him that sent him. 77 Prov. x. 25. 

The mistress goes down into the kitchen; 
there are her girls sitting down with their hands 
in their laps, talking with one another, or with 
an acquaintance that has come in. There they 
have been a full half hour, and everything behind 
hand. It is enough to ruffle the temper of a 
saint. 

Another girl is always running out to see the 
girl in the next house, leaving the dinner to take 
care of itself. Another has chamber work to do : 
it is the same ; until late in the morning all is in 
confusion. If the children are to be cared for, 
the poor little things are not half dressed, they 
get bruised and thumped because they are not 
watched and attended to as they ought to be. 

If several girls are living together, there is an 
everlasting strife as to whose business it is to do 


ADVANTAGES OF DILIGENCE. 


193 


this, or to do that, and half the work is not done ; 
and every now and then the only thing to do is 
to clear out the whole set, and get another. 
Perhaps some poor innocent girl, then, has to suf¬ 
fer from the negligence of her companions. 


CHAPTER LI. 

ADVANTAGES OF DILIGENCE. 

Don’t be afraid of labor or trouble. The in¬ 
dustrious girl will not have near as much work 
to do as the lazy and shiftless one. Why ? be¬ 
cause she manages so that her work is done with 
much less trouble. She goes right at it without 
allowing it ever to get the upper hand of her. 

If a good deal is to be done in the morning, 
she gets things ready over night. A great many 
things can be done better then than in the morning. 
One girl will get up in the morning : there is the 
fire all out; no kindling-wood ready ; the sticks 
all wet; the kettle to be filled with water ; the 
coffee to be ground; the meat to be chopped; 
everything to be done. She says, “Dear me! 
17 



194 


ADVANTAGES OF DILIGENCE. 


there is no living in such a place as this. I don’t 
know where my head is, I’ve so much to do.” 

Another girl of more orderly habits, has had 
plenty of time over night to make all these pre¬ 
parations. She has only to light a match, and in 
a minute lias a good blazing lire ; her breakfast 
is all ready to put on to cook ; and without a bit 
of fuss or disturbance of mind it is ready at the 
moment. So, from one year’s end to another, 
where such a girl is, there is peace and satisfac¬ 
tion all around, while with the other there is 
nothing but trouble and sorrow. 

This girl has never too much to do, and does 
all well. The other is half the time overloaded 
with work, and does it half, while the rest of her 
time she is lazy and idle, and committing sin 
right and left; for the old saying is true : “ The 
devil finds work enough for idle hands to do.” 

Where is your true perfection and goodness ? 
It is in your work. You may think it is in your 
prayers, or in your hearing Mass, or in Confession, 
or in Communion. All these things are good, 
all these things are necessary, but your perfection 
is in your work. 

Do your work well, and do it with the right 
intention, because it is your duty, and because it 
is God’s will you should do it; and you will be 
on the' shortest road to perfection. All your 


ADVANTAGES OF DILIGENCE. 


195 


prayers, all your confessions, all your commun¬ 
ions, will avail little, if your conscience is not in 
your work. 

In a nice little story I have read lately, there 
is a character called Fanny. Now, Fanny was 
very pious, a monthly communicant. She said 
her Rosary every day, and must always be at 
church, particularly when anything extraordinary 
was going on. One evening a celebrated man 
was to preach, and Fanny had set her heart on 
going. But as it happened, at that very time 
company came in, and Fanny’s services were ne¬ 
cessary • she could not go. Now then, was a 
time of it. All her mildness, all her piety was 
gone. “ She wouldn’t stand it, it was too bad,” 
and so on. 

The fact is, Fanny’s piety was not very deep. 
She was, after all, more bent on pleasing herself 
than on pleasing God. She had an opportunity, 
by putting up with her disappointment and doing 
her work cheerfully, to gain more than by hear¬ 
ing a dozen sermons. 

St. Zita, in her old age, used frequently to 
say, that “ no servant is truly devout, who is not 
laborious; and that a lazy piety, in persons of 
their condition, is a false piety.” She practiced 
it herself up to the letter. Not a single moment 
of her time was unoccupied. She was always 


196 


ADVANTAGES OF DILIGENCE. 


ready, when her own work was done, to help 
others ; and as long as she saw anything left un¬ 
done about the house, she never considered her 
task over. 

That was the way. Every bit of her work was 
a prayer to God. It gave her no uneasiness that 
she could not retire to pray on her knees, or in 
the church, as long as work was to be done; her 
readiness, her cheerfulness, her fidelity in work, 
were all so many sacrifices of sweet odor to 
God, so many prayers proceeding from such an 
humble, child-like faith. It was in this way that 
she brought down on herself those streams of 
grace that made her finally a saint, to be held in 
love and veneration throughout the church for 
all ages. 


EXAMPLE. 

We have another beautiful example of dili¬ 
gence and attention in service, in the life of a 
noble lady, Anne of Montmorency, written by 
Lady Georgiana Fullerton. The family of this 
lady were making preparations for her marriage, 
but she felt called by God to a different state of 
life,—a state in which she could imitate the ex¬ 
ample of the Lord Jesus Christ more perfectly. 

When she found all her entreaties of no avail, 
she left her father’s house at the tender age of 


ADVANTAGES OF DILIGENCE. 


197 


fifteen. No one knew what had become of her. 
She took the name of Jane Margaret, and hired 
herself out to a lady in a country village. 

The lady was so difficult in her temper that 
no other girl could remain with her. All the 
work fell on Anne to do : she was chambermaid, 
cook and portress at the same time. 

Just think of that. A delicate young lady, 
always waited upon, never obliged to do anything 
in the way of hard work, of a high education 
and immense wealth, doing all this work! 

And she did it well, too. For ten years she 
served in the utmost patience and fidelity. She 
overcame evil with good, so that wheu her mis¬ 
tress was dying, she called her to her bedside 
and begged her pardon for all she had made her 
suffer, and insisted on leaving her the sum of 
four thousand francs, in addition to her wages. 
Anne accepted it after some hesitation, and gave 
it all to the poor. 

Think over this example, and get from it all 
the good it teaches so eloquently. If you, born 
of poor parents, and used to hard work, complain 
and neglect your duties, and pass your time in 
idleness, let the thought of this delicate and re¬ 
fined lady, working so patiently in the kitchen so 
many years, shame you into bettor sentiments. 
Let it encourage you to overcome your natural 
17 * 


198 


ON HONESTY AT SERVICE. 


weakness and the snares of the devil, until you 
acquire habits of industry and of faithful attention 
to your duties. Make this attempt in order to 
please God, and ask His help. He will not fail 
to give you abundant grace to accomplish it. 


CHAPTER LII. 

ON HONESTY AT SERVICE. 

There is one golden sentence of Holy Scrip¬ 
ture, which ought to be deeply impressed on the 
heart of every girl, who aims at making progress 
in the love of God. It is this: “But having 
food and raiment, let us be therewith content.” 
1 Tim. vi. 8. I call it a golden sentence because 
it expresses so well the limits a good Christian 
should put to his desires if he would enjoy true 
contentment of mind. 

Would that we could all of us be satisfied, 
when God supplies the reasonable wants of the 
body, without craving and worrying for those 
things which are not required, and which we are, 
for the most part, much better without. 



ON HONESTY AT SERVICE. 199 

If we have enough food to keep us in good 
health and strength, and clothes to keep us de¬ 
cent and warm, wo have all that we can make 
use of. The rest is superfluous, and when life 
has gone by, even if it lasts ninety years, we 
shall come to its end, not a bit better for all of 
it. As Scripture says : “We brought nothing 
into this world, and it is certain we can carry 
nothing out!” 1 Tim. vi. 7. 

The practical meaning of being content with 
food and raiment is, that each one should be 
satisfied with that portion of this world’s goods 
which God assigns him, without repining and 
fretting because ho has not more, and without 
taking any unjust means to get more. “ For 
coveteousness is the root of all evils, Avhich some 
desiring have erred from the faith, and entangled 
themselves in many sorrows.” 1 Tim. vi. 10. 

We are very apt to regard life and happiness 
as consisting in the possession of these superfluous 
goods, called riches. It is not so. Riches are 
very often but sorrows which entangle us, and 
snares which entrap us into the captivity of the 
devil. “ How hardly shall they that have riches 
enter into the kingdom of God.” St. Mark 
x. 23. 

If any have cause to complain of God, it is 
not the poor, but the rich; for their chance of 


200 


ON HONESTY AT SERVICE. 


salvation is the worst. But no one has any right 
to complain. God distributes riches just as He 
pleases, and makes it best for each one to be just 
as he is : the rich to be rich, and the poor to be 
poor. The rich can be poor in spirit, and the 
poor rich in faith; and that will bring all things 
right for both rich and poor. 

And God, having fixed matters in this way, 
will not allow the poor to steal away the goods 
of the rich. “ Thou shalt not steal,” Ex. xx. 15, 
is the commandment which applies to all, and 
which no one is at liberty to transgress. If you 
have food and raiment you must be contented 
with it; and if your neighbor has a thousand 
times more than this of all kinds of luxuries, 
and conveniences enough for years on years, you 
cannot reach out your hand to steal the smallest 
thing of his. This is the will of God ; and His 
commandment, “Thou shalt not steal,” stands 
like a wall of iron against it. 

I wish I could impress on each heart, so 
that it would never be forgotten, the necessity 
of perfect honesty in all things, small and great. 
It is difficult to conceive the evils likely to arise 
from the least want of principle in this respect. 
St. Paul expresses it very well when he says, 
“ Coveteousness is the root of all evils.” 

From this root grows loss of character and 


ON HONESTY AT SERVICE. 


201 


happiness here, and loss of heaven hereafter. 
The love of money and possessions is so cap¬ 
tivating, that when it has once taken root, it is 
hard to pull it up from the heart. It grows 
stronger and stronger, until it takes up all the 
room in the heart, and leaves no place for the 
love of God. 

One would think that it would die away in old 
age and disappear; it is so foolish to be taken 
up with perishable and valueless things; but no ; 
it grows stronger and stronger to the very grave. 
For a handful of yellow dirt the soul is sold to 
the devil, and that dirt has to be left behind. 
“ We can carry nothing out.” 

How often it involves loss of happiness and 
character in this world! A girl has a good 
character. She is esteemed. She can easily get 
her living and have all she wants. But she be¬ 
gins to pilfer. It goes on from one thing to an¬ 
other, from small to great, until she is detected, 
and disgraced. 

The only way is, to stop at the very beginning ; 
to refrain from taking a pin’s worth. Have this 
principle, and there is no danger. 

I dare say you have heard the story of tho 
young man who was condemned to be hanged 
for robbery, and who called to his old mother, as 
he stood under the gallows, to come up to him, as 


202 ON HONESTY AT SERVICE. 

lie liad a word to whisper in her ear. She came 
np, sobbing and crying, when he, instead of saying 
anything to her, bit off her ear. 

“0 my son!” she cried, “what have I done that 
you should serve me so cruelly ? “ It is,” he re¬ 
plied, “ for your cruelty to me in not correcting 
me for my iirst theft. If, instead of rewarding 
me for it, you had given me a sound whipping, 
I should have taken warning in time. That first 
theft has brought me to the gallows.” 

So, a little tea, or a little coffee, or sugar, or 
an article of clothing of not much value, has 
brought many a poor girl to the loss of char¬ 
acter, and the loss of her soul. Give no heed 
to the devil who tempts; who says, “ Oh, it 
is not much, nobody will miss it; the owner is 
rich, and has more than he knows what to do 
with; you are poor, and it will do you good;” 
but give heed to God, who says, “ Thou shalt not 
steal,” and, “ Neither thieves, nor the covetous, 
nor the unjust,” etc., “shall enter the kingdom of 
Heaven.” 1 Cor. vi. 10. 

We have a most fearful warning in the case 
of the apostle Judas, who sold our Lord for 
thirty pieces of silver. How did he get so far 
as to betray his Lord and Master ? It was just 
in this way : by little and little. He let a cov¬ 
etous spirit have its way, first, in small things. 


ON HONESTY AT SERVICE. 


203 


He carried the bag in which the alms were 
placed which good people gave for the support 
of the Saviour and the apostles. He looked 
with greedy eyes upon them, and began to pilfer 
what he thought would not be missed. That 
cursed, avaricious feeling took root and grew in 
his heart, until he even bargained ta betray the 
Lord Jesus Christ for thirty poor, miserable 
pieces of silver. 


CHAPTER LIII. 

CONTINUATION. 

Is not the same thing done nowadays? A girl 
comes to Confession. Everything goes on well 
enough, until it comes out that she has stolen 
something of considerable, though not very great 
value, from the family she formerly lived with. 
She is admonished of the necessity of return¬ 
ing that amount, but absolutely refuses. She 
says, “I cannot.” “Why can you not?” says 
the confessor. “Because I do not wish to.” 
“But have you not the means of doing it?” 



204 


ON HONESTY AT SERVICE. 


“Yes,” is the reply, “but I don’t want to part 
with the money.” “ But you cannot be forgiven 
unless you do ; God’s law will not allow it.” 
She rises to go. “ Stop,” says the confessor, “ will 
you lose your soul for a trifling sum of money ? ” 

It seems so, for she persists, and goes away sor¬ 
rowful. Money is more attractive to her than 
the grace of God, or the kingdom of heaven. 
Like the young man, who, when told by the Sa¬ 
viour, to sell his goods and follow Him, would 
not do it, but went away in sadness. 

I wish this were only a description of fancy ; 
Alas! such cases have happened. And when 
the amount is greater, the difficulty of making 
good the theft becomes almost too great to be 
overcome. 

How many hundreds and thousands give up ’ 
the grace of God rather than give up those darl¬ 
ing dollars they have unjustly acquired! It is 
this obligation to restore or give back what is 
wrongfully taken, which makes the sin of theft 
so dangerous to our salvation. Other sins are 
forgiven when we are truly sorry and deter¬ 
mined to commit them no more ; but this is not 
enough when something has been stolen. If it 
be a thing of notable value, it must be given back 
when one has the ability to do so. Of course, 
so long as one has not the means, it cannot be 


ON HONESTY AT SERVICE. 


205 


done; and God does not require an impossi¬ 
bility. But as soon as one lias the means, the 
obligation revives. 

In this way, a sin of theft may be hanging over 
one’s head the greater part of a life-time, causing 
immense uneasiness and trouble of conscience. 
Old men and women are often laden with the 
dishonesty of their youth. They have not been 
able to make restitution, or they have neglected 
to do so when they were, and now they see no 
prospect of ever doing it. They fear to appear 
before God while it is undone. 

How much better, then, to keep one’s con¬ 
science entirely clear, that we may say at once : 
“ As for dishonesty, I am entirely set against it, 
and would not for the world touch a penny’s 
worth of anything not my own.” 

Do you know what comparison has often been 
in my mind, when a girl accuses herself of taking 
little thimgs ? I think of a rotten apple. No 
matter how small a speck of rottenness there is 
in an apple, it destroys its value. That speck 
is sure to spread, soundness no longer belongs to 
that apple. 

So the heart which displeases God by pilfer¬ 
ing is specked ; it is sound no longer. It is not 
that true heart it ought to be, and most likely 
that unsoundness or rottenness will spread until 
18 


206 ADVANTAGES OF HONESTY. 

the whole heart becomes corrupt. On the con¬ 
trary, how beautiful it is to observe justice in 
one’s dealings, to be perfectly reliable at all 
times and under all circumstances. It makes up 
for a great many other faults. 


CHAPTER LIY. 

ADVANTAGES OF HONESTY. 

How often ladies in talking about their ser¬ 
vants, will go over a list of faults, and wind up 
by saying : “ But, after all, she is as honest as the 
day. I have never had reason to suspect any¬ 
thing in the shape of stealing or pilfering.” And 
all who listen get a favorable opinion. 

This is expressed well in the old familiar max¬ 
im : “ Honesty is the best policy.” One may ac¬ 
quire some little gain by cheating or stealing, for 
a short while, but in the long run he will gain a 
great deal more by strict honesty. So girls will 
get better places and better wages as soon as 
they have an established character for being 
strictly honest. 



ADVANTAGES OF HONESTY. 207 

These, however, are only considerations of this 
world ; there are vastly more important ones : 
the approval of God in heaven ; the testimony 
of a good conscience. What kind of a con¬ 
science can a thief or a pilferer have ? A very 
bad one, and a very uneasy ono. And this un¬ 
easy conscience destroys peace, and when peace 
departs, ill-temper and peevishness set in. One 
cannot say his prayers with satisfaction. It is 
all down-hill with good resolutions and piety. 

Could we only see how much we stand in our 
own light by this vice, I am sure we should de¬ 
test it from the bottom of our hearts. And, after 
all, what is gained ? A small sum of money, a 
trifling article, of dress or ornament, something 
to eat or drink, which gives no satisfaction when 
we have it. It is the devil who cheats and de¬ 
ludes us under false pretences, that he may hold 
us in a most miserable and galling slavery. 

On the other hand, what a blessed satisfac¬ 
tion the just man, the man who respects his 
neighbors goods out of love to God, enjoys! 
The Scripture describes it: u Lord, who shall 
dwell in Thy tabernacle, and rest in Thy holy 
mountain ? He that walketh without blemish 
and worketh justice.” Ps. xiv. 1. Again, it is 
said in another psalm : “ Who shall ascend into 
the mountain of the Lord! or who shall stand 


208 


ADVANTAGES OF HONESTY. 


in His holy place ?” The answer is : “ The in¬ 
nocent in hands and clean of heart.” Ps. xxiii. 4. 
Yes, those whose hearts are set to do right, and 
whose hands are innocent of all picking and 
stealing. 

If we desire an example from Holy Scripture to 
show how dear to God the man is who is set 
against all dishonesty, we have the instance of 
Zaccheus the Publican. When he fell at the 
Saviour’s feet and exclaimed : “ Lord, if I have 
done any man wrong I return him fourfold,” 
the Saviour immediately replied : “ This day is 
salvation come to this house.” St. Luke xix. 8,9. 

What speech more consoling and delightful 
than this could mortal man desire to hear from 
the lips of the Lord of eternal glory! Set not 
then your hearts on riches at all. Be content 
with your living, and God who clothes the lilies 
of the field will see that you have food and cloth¬ 
ing. You can earn your honest wages, and be 
satisfied with them. They will, and must suffice 
for all your desires. In short, be poor in spirit, 
that is, according to the explanation in the Bible, 
humble and not set upon riches, but upon pleas¬ 
ing God, and yours will be the kingdom of hea¬ 
ven. 

Why, the very first words of our Saviour in 
His Sermon on the Mount are these : “ And 


WASTEFULNESS. 


209 


opening His mouth, He taught them, saying : 
‘ Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the 
kingdom of heaven.”’ St. Matt. v. iii. Re¬ 
member these words as long as you live, and 
carry them out in your life. 


CHAPTER LY. 

DIFFERENT KINDS OF DISHONESTY. WASTE¬ 
FULNESS. 

One sort of dishonesty is wastefulness, which 
consists in a want of consideration for the prop¬ 
erty committed to one’s charge. Such waste 
may amount in value to very large sums of 
money in the long run. Many a family has been 
brought to ruin through a wasteful kitchen. 

Suppose you know the place where small 
change, sixpences and five-cent pieces, are kept, 
and every little while you go there and take a 
handful to toss among the dirt, you can easily 
imagine what a havoc you would make with the 
income of the family. 

Well, what is the difference, when you fre- 
18 * 



210 DIFFERENT KINDS OF DISHONESTY. 

quently destroy a shilling’s worth of butter, or 
five cents’ worth of tea or sugar ; when you spoil 
a batch of bread by your negligence, allow milk 
and meat to spoil, or throw away victuals which 
can readily be put to a good use ? Is not this 
scattering money right and left ? 

You have no right to do so. As a servant, 
you are bound to take as much care of the 
things entrusted to you, as if they were your 
own, and even more. If they were your own, 
you might have more liberty to dispose of them, 
but as it is, you are bound by justice towards 
those whom you have engaged to serve, and who 
recompense you for taking that care. 

And whether they be rich or whether they be 
poor, does not alter the obligation. If it be a 
company, a corporation, or the government whom 
you serve, its property must be none the less 
sacred in your hands. It is the, devil who puts 
it into your mind that it is of no consequence in 
such cases. He says : “ Oh, never mind, you 
need not be so particular, they are rich ; a little 
more or a little less is nothing to them.” The 
Blessed Saviour never thought of making any 
such exception. He expects faithfulness from 
you in all cases. You are His stewards ; all 
that is entrusted to your care He regards as His 
own, no matter who the owner may be. And if 


WASTEFULNESS. 


211 


He sees that you look at it in that light, you 
will be very dear to Him. 

Of St. Zita it is said, that although she was so 
engrossed with prayer, and thinking of God and 
heavenly things, she never neglected a duty, 
never suffered anything to go to waste by her 
negligence. 

You remember that beautiful parable of the 
Lord's, about the servants coming to give account 
of what they had done with their Lord's talents 
entrusted to them. One, with ten talents, had 
gained ten others. One, with five, had gained 
five others. They were rewarded abundantly. 
Then came the one who had hid his Lord's tal¬ 
ent in the ground, and he was punished. So it 
is with servants. Some make good use of all 
that comes in their hands. They shall be re¬ 
warded. Others are wasteful, extravagent, des¬ 
tructive. They shall be punished by the Lord. 
For we are to do service as to the Lord and not 
as man-pleasers. 

Be not then eye-servants, doing your duty 
when the mistress's eye is upon you ; but remem¬ 
ber that the Lord's eye sees you. Take care, 
take pains, use all the discretion and judgment 
God has given you ; for it is not merely the 
hands, but the head also, that you have engaged 
in service. Be in all respects like a prudent 


212 DISHONESTY ON THE PRETEXT OF CHARITY. 

and careful owner in regard to his own property, 
and look to the Lord for your recompense. In 
this way, you shall not fail in the great day to 
to reap an abundant recompense, according to 
the Lord’s promise : “ Inasmuch as ye have done 
it unto the least of these, ye have done it unto 
me.” St. Matt. xxv. 40. 


CHAPTER LYI. 

DISHONESTY ON THE PRETEXT OF CHARITY. 

* 

There are various ways of taking the prop¬ 
erty of one’s master to one’s own use, that have 
a kind of blind or cover over them, which tends 
to conceal their real guilt. The devil is always 
ready to bring these excuses to mind. 

One is : “ Oh, I have only given away to poor 
people something that wouldn’t amount to much ; 
a few grains of sugar, or a little tea, a lump of 
butter, or some victuals that wouldn’t be missed, 
a few old clothes, a worn-out table cloth, or some 
half-worn towels, and so on.” 

This covers a good deal. I dare say you have 



DISHONESTY ON THE PRETEXT OF CHARITY. 213 

heard of smuggling—that is, secretly getting 
goods from other countries without paying the 
duties, and so selling them cheap. Large for¬ 
tunes are sometimes made in this way. The 
practice of smuggling away goods out of the 
house you live in, perhaps to a mother, a sister, 
or a neighbor, covers often a brisk trade, which 
if it were all summed up would make a large 
amount. 

It goes on quietly, but continually. It is like 
the circle made by a stone thrown in the water, 
that enlarges all the while. It is petty thieving, 
and deserves no better name. It may wear the 
cloak of charity ; but it is not the less stealing. 
If one makes himself master of another’s goods 
without his consent, he steals ; it makes no dif¬ 
ference whether he keeps them for his own use, 
or gives them away. 

Objects of real charity may present themselves ; 
they may beg you to help them ; they may ask 
for this or that which they see you have in 
charge ; but you should never let them have any¬ 
thing unless you first go and get the authority 
of the owner. It is a temptation, I know, for a 
poor girl who has a widowed mother or sister to 
help, when she sees plenty around her that will 
be so acceptable to them, and will not be missed ; 
but it is a temptation of the enemy of souls, a 


214 DISHONESTY ON THE PRETEXT OF CHARITY. 

very great snare for her ruin. Turn a deaf ear 
to all such temptations. 

Turn a deaf ear to every so-called friend who 
tries to coax or flatter you, or to work on your 
kind feelings, to make you fall into this snare. 
Say : “ Not a penny’s worth will F give away.” 

Do as St. Zita did. A more benevolent, kind- 
hearted creature then she was could not be ; she 
never refused any poor person, but mind you, it 
was not at her master’s expense. She saved her 
own wages. She denied herself many a thing to 
eat, many a thing to wear, and gave that to the 
poor. 

Oh, how pleasing such charity is to God! It 
observes the everlasting precepts of justice out 
of regard and respect to Him, and relieves the 
poor of Christ at the same time. 

But the other kind of charity is no charity at 
all. It is robbing your own souls to give to 
others’ bodies. It is outraging and offending 
God on the pretence of doing Him service. 

Make it then your rule, and keep to it, to give 
away nothing that you do not own yourself, or 
which you are not clearly authorized to give 
away. So will you avoid a world of trouble and 
a disturbed and doubtful conscience. 


DISHONESTY ARISING FROM GLUTTONY. 215 


CHAPTER LVII. 

DISHONESTY ARISING FROM GLUTTONY. 

Sometimes a sort of dishonesty arises from 
gluttony, from too great desire to enjoy expensive 
and delicate food. One is not satisfied with ord¬ 
inary fare, but is all the time looking out for this 
or that which they fancy will gratify their palate. 
This leads them to take those things they have 
no sort of right to, such as cakes, sweetmeats, 
wines or liquors. 

Many families, who have such things, cannot 
afford to make them common. They keep them 
in places not under the control of the servants, 
and for extraordinary occasions. Even the 
children of the house have no use of them except 
by permission. Now, it is of course entirely 
wrong secretly to get hold of and consume such 
things. 

The fact that they are not taken out of the 
house or given away, but eaten or drunk at home, 
does not make it less a robbery; for it is well 
understood that they are entirely removed from 
your control. 


216 DISHONESTY ARISING FROM GLUTTONY. 

You might as well take money or other things 
as to take these. And if it be in the houses of 
the wealthy that these delicacies or expensive 
things are reserved it makes no difference ; they 
arenas much out of your reach as if in another’s 
house. 

You are entitled to good, wholesome food, and 
in sufficient quantity to keep up full health and 
strength. When you have this, you ought to be 
contented. 

I believe women at service in this country 
have in general very little to complain of in this 
respect. They share in pretty much all that is 
in use in the family, and have a diet good enough 
for anyone. If here and there an exception is 
made, and something is kept back, it is only 
reasonable it should be so. 

• But it is really too bad when a servant is 
always complaining of her food, wanting to cook 
something for herself different from that which 
is in use in the family, and so making a deal of 
trouble and vexation. 

On Fridays, in Protestant families, there may 
be room for exception, where nothing but meat 
is provided ; but even here it is more edifying 
and more Catholic, if we cannot readily provide 
something special, or one is refused permission to 
do so, to get along with bread and butter, or vege- 


DISHONESTY ARISING FROM GLUTTONY. 217 

tables, or some such substantial food, than to 
make a great matter of it. 

I like very much the remark of an author, who 
says, that servants should accustom themselves 
to a very plain and simple diet, and that even if 
they live in places where the food is delicate and 
rich, they should avoid allowing themselves to 
set much store by it. It may very well happen 
that after living on rich food for some time we 
may be disgusted at having to take up with what 
« is plainer and more suitable, and the servant 
turn up her nose at what the mistress is satisfied 
with : so you see this is good 1 advice. 

Plain diet is best for everyone. It is hurtful 
for kings, queens, rich and noble, to gratify the 
palate. It ruins health and it ruins peace of 
mind. We cannot be servants of Jesus* Christ 
and of the belly at the same time. 

Nothing destroys the delight of the soul in 
heavenly things more quickly than this love of 
eating and drinking. So the Saviour says: 
“ Take heed to ourselves lest perhaps your 
hearts be overcharged with surfeiting (i. e., over¬ 
eating) and drunkenness, and the cares of this 
life and that day come upon you suddenly.” St. 
Luke xxi. 34. 

You remember, I dare say, the parable of the 
rich man and the poor beggar who sat at his 
19 


218 'DISHONESTY ARISING FROM GLUTTONY. 

gate. Now all that is said of the rich man is, 
that his thoughts and time were taken up in 
feasting and living sumptuously. It is not said 
that he committed other crimes, yet when he 
died his soul went into hell. No doubt he was 
guilty of deadly sins, but they are not mentioned, 
because they grew out of his love of pleasure, 
which was the root of them and caused his 
damnation. 

Oh, then, avoid this sin! According to the 
Gospel rule, having food and raiment; having # 
sufficient for your health and strength, be con¬ 
tented with it; desire nothing more, and be 
careful not to set your heart on more, if it come 
in your way. 

Imitate the example of so many of the holy 
men and women whom the Church has canonized. 
Of Blessed Sebastian of Apparizio, it is related, 
that when the daughter of his employer used to 
make cake and pies to present to him, he would 
never eat them. He said, such kind of food was 
not suitable for a farm-servant, but not knowing 
how to refuse without giving offence, and at a 
loss what to do with them, he gave them to the 
cows and horses. Many of the saints would 
rather do this than pamper their own appetites 
with delicate food. 

How poor and plain has been the diet of many 


DISHONESTY ARISING FROM GLUTTONY. 219 

a high-born lady, whose heart has been pierced 
with the desir# to live for God and His love 
alone. Of St. Frances of Rome, we read that 
from a very early age she practiced very great 
abstinence in regard to food. Nothing but water 
was ever drank by her. She ate no meat, eggs, or 
any sweet things, but simply boiled vegetables and 
bread. After her marriage to one of the richest 
and noblest men of Rome, when she had to sit 
at the head of a splendid table, with every 
luxury upon it, she carried out the same mode of 
life ; but so quietly and modestly that very few 
noticed her, or, if they did, thought it owing to 
her peculiar state of health. 

Of another holy woman, Anne of Montmorency, 
of one of the best families of France, we know 
that for a long time she lived on what she could 
beg at the church-door from day to day ; then on 
a little bread and water which she got twice a 
week by begging ; and at last on the wild fruits 
and vegetables she collected in the woods. How 
such examples ought to shame us, who think so 
much on our stomachs and so little on the good 
of our souls! 

To sum up, then : be perfectly satisfied with a 
good and sufficient diet, no matter how plain it 
may be; and for the love of God not lay dis¬ 
honest hands on anything eatable or drinkable 
out of a spirit of gluttony. 


220 PRETEXT OF INSUFFICIENT WAGES. 


CHAPTER LVIII. 

DISHONESTY ON THE PRETEXT OF INSUFFICIENT 
WAGES. 

T)o not let the devil delude you with another 
false pretence. He may say to you, that you do 
not get enough wages ; that other girls are get¬ 
ting more, who do not work more than you do, 
and that you are justified in helping yourself, if 
you can, to what will make up the difference. 

Or, he may whisper in your ear that your 
work is harder than usual, or that you work a 
longer time than other girls, and that you should 
have something for it • and that you might as 
well take something when you see your chance. 

Now all these are truly devilish suggestions. 
Take the wages you have agreed to serve for, 
and be satisfied. It may be a little more or a 
little less, but it is what you agreed for. 

A bargain is a bargain. When you make a 
bargain and benefit by it, you are glad enough 
to get that benefit; and others think as you do 
when they make a close bargain. You have no 
right to make a bargain unless you intend to 
hold to it. If you have not been aware of all 


PRETEXT OP INSUFFICIENT WAGES. 221 

tlie facts of the case, try to make a better bar¬ 
gain ; and if you do not succeed, then you are 
at liberty, after due notice, to go somewhere 
else. 

It is a wide door of sin to undertake to recom¬ 
pense yourself, on any plea of low wages, or 
extra work. If such excuses were once allowed, 
there would be no such thing as putting con¬ 
fidence in any agreement. 

The merchant would cheat, delivering not 
what he agreed to, but what he pleases. The 
tailor would cheat in his clothing, putting in 
worse material and work than he agreed upon, 
and pocketing the difference. He would say: 
“ Oh, I give them pretty nigh the worth of their 
money, and that is all that can be expected of 
me.” The carpenter and the mason would do 
just as they pleased. “ Oh! the material I put 
in is not what I agreed to, but it is good enough; 
I don’t make any more than I ought to.” The 
milliner and the dressmaker would cheat. The 
world would be filled with deceit and fraud of 
the basest and meanest kind. The dishonest 
thief would carry on his thieving operations 
under the cloak of a saint: “ Oh, I do no wrong : 
I am entitled in justice to all I have taken.” 

God in Heaven cannot abide such practices. 
Listen to what St. John the Baptist has preached 
19 * 


222 PRETEXT OF INSUFFICIENT WAGES. 

on the subject: “ He said therefore to the mul¬ 
titudes that came to be baptized by him, Ye off¬ 
spring of vipers, who has showed you to flee from 
the wrath to come ? Bring forth then fruit worthy 
of penance. 77 And the people asked him, What 
shall we do ? He replied, and told them what 
to do. Then the publicans asked him the same 
question. He told them, also. But when the 
soldiers asked, what shall we do ? He replied : 
“ Do violence to no man, neither calumniate any 
man ; 77 and, remark well what else : “ Be content 
with your pay, 77 St. Luke iii. 14; that is, do 
not plunder and steal on the plea of having too 
little pay. The soldiers are here threatened 
with the wrath of God, if they should undertake 
to increase their gains beyond the wages they 
had agreed upon. 

In the same, way the wrath of God will fall on 
the servant who increases his pay by secret 
means. Such suggestions are like false teachers, 
“ wolves in sheeps 7 clothing. 77 They are ravening 
wolves, never satisfied, but attacking one thing 
after another, until they have devoured every bit 
of goodness and virtue in you. Resist, then, with 
fortitude every such temptation. 

If money passes through your hands in buying 
or selling, use no fraud or deceit about the price, 
but give back every cent of change. Sell nothing 


CO-OPERATION IN DISHONESTY. 


223 


out of the house j nothing whatever ; no matter 
what others may do or say. Accept no presents 
or bribes from storekeepers, or any one else, to 
cover up any dishonest transaction. Come down, 
completely and simply to your pay, and be 
content therewith, that you may flee from the 
wrath to come, and commend yourselves as truly 
honest servants in whom there is no guile. 


CHAPTER LIX. 

CO-OPERATION IN DISHONESTY. 

There is another snare to be avoided, which 
is sometimes very dangerous. It arises from the 
sins of others. There are others in the house 
who are dishonest, and who want to make use 
of you to carry on their designs. If they do not 
Want this, they at least want to get you mixed 
up in the same kind of business, so that they may 
not be told of, or because an unquiet conscience 
gets some consolation in the thought that others 
are as bad as themselves. 



224 


CO-OPERATION IN DISHONESTY. 


No matter what the motive may be that leads 
them to drag you into their dishonesty, have 
nothing whatever to do with it. 

But suppose it is a head-servant of the house, 
one who has the confidence of the master of the 
house, who carries things as he pleases, and he 
or she threatens to get you turned out if you do 
not do as they wish you. Never mind : suffer 
yourselves to be turned out of the place, but do 
not steal. 

Even if it be a child in the family, a brother 
or a sister of your employer, have nothing to do 
with their wickedness. If it be a partner in any 
business in which you are employed who is steal¬ 
ing from his partner, and who threatens or coaxes 
you, give no heed to him. 

Even if you are threatened with being accused 
of stealing, yourself, or with having slanderous 
stories set afloat about you by wicked persons, 
out of spite and malice, do not be moved an inch 
from the right course. Have nothing to do with 
their wickedness. 

God will reward you for all you have to suf¬ 
fer. He will make the right appear in good 
time, and all your sufferings will be rich crowns 
of merit for you. “ Blessed are you when men 
revile you and persecute you falsely for my sake, 
and for justice’s sake. Rejoice and be exceed- 


CO-OPERATION IN DISHONESTY. 225 

ing glad, for great shall be your reward in 
heaven.” St. Matt. v. 11. 

The question may be asked : “ If I know of 
another’s stealing, and I have nothing to do with 
it myself, am I obliged to make it known ? It is 
a thing I should not like to do, for nothing seems 
meaner than to be telling of others.” 

We cannot always do just what we like : we 
must do what the law of God requires. As St. 
Paul says: “ But as for me it is a thing of the 
least account to be judged by you or by human 
judgment . . . but he that judgeth me is the 
Lord.” 1 Corin. iv. 3. 

In truth, there is nothing mean, nothing dis¬ 
honorable, in informing, when wickedness is going 
on, and your information will stop it. It requires 
courage, it is true, but that makes it the more 
noble and more full of merit. 

In most cases, you are bound, through many 
motives, to give information. 

It is your duty to your employers, a duty of 
charity, and often of justice. If you are in 
charge of certain things and responsible for 
their safe keeping, and allow them to be taken, 
you would be bound in justice to take means to 
prevent their being stolen; and if you did not, 
you would be under obligation to make good the 
loss. 


226 


CO-OPERATION IN DISHONESTY. 


If you are not in such a position, it is a duty 
of charity, at least, to inform and prevent the 
evil from going on. You are, for the time being, 
a member of the family; and can you believe 
that you can fold your arms and let robbery go 
on without trying to prevent it ? The very idea 
is monstrous ; it is contrary to the first principles 
of conscience. 

Then, it is a duty you owe yourself. If you do 
not inform, you run a great risk of losing your own 
character. When it is discovered, as it will very 
likely be, and it is known that you were aware 
of it, and did not tell, you will be almost sure to 
be considered as an accomplice in the crime. 
Your character is valuable to you, and it is 
your duty to preserve it, and you have no right 
to expose it to so great a risk of being lost. 

It may be, there are other domestics in the 
house : charity to them requires that it be known 
who is the real offender, lest they be unjustly 
suspected or accused. 

And, finally, it is a charity to the dishonest 
persons. It is far better for them to be found 
out and punished, than to be allowed to go on 
hardening themselves and increasing in guilt all 
the while. The rule is, then, in spite of all your 
dislike, to do your duty and reveal their sin. 

Are there no exceptions to this rule? Un- 


CO-OPERATION IN DISHONESTY. 227 

doubtedly there are. Let us see what they 
are. 

If they should be violent persons, of a slander¬ 
ous tongue, and willing to do you mischief in re¬ 
venge for telling of them, would that excuse you ? 
I think not. As I said before, your reputation 
is in the hands of God, who will see to it that all 
turns out well for you. They will not hurt you. 
You will come out of such trials like gold puri¬ 
fied in the fire ; very lovely in the eyes of men 
for your solid virtue, and in God’s all-seeing eye 
for your faithfulness to Him, though at the cost 
of some suffering. But suppose your information 
will do no good, but only get yourself into trou¬ 
ble ? In that case you are not under any obli¬ 
gation to reveal. 

The other servants in the house may be so 
much in the confidence of the master or mistress 
as to be able to throw suspicion off themselves 
on you, and injure you seriously. No obligation 
of charity to others can outweigh that of justice 
to yourself and your own reputation. It is well 
in such case to get prudent advice, and act 
upon it. 


228 PRACTICAL DIRECTIONS IN THIS MATTER. 


CHAPTER LX. 

PRACTICAL DIRECTIONS IN THIS MATTER. 

Now, how ought you to proceed in case you 
have to inform your employers of the thefts of 
others? That depends a good deal on their 
characters and dispositions. If they be prudent 
persons, whom you could rely on, to treat the 
guilty parties with mercy and justice, to keep 
the information secret, and screen you from 
being known to have exposed the matter, tell 
them at once and let them take their measures. 
But a great many employers are not of this char¬ 
acter. They are hasty and violent and incon¬ 
siderate of others. In that case you must use 
precautions. 

1st. Confine yourself at first to making known 
the bare fact of the theft. Say that such or 
such a thing has disappeared, that you have 
remarked that things have disappeared from 
time to time, or that at least they were there at 
such a time and you have missed them since; 
that you had thought it your duty to warn them 
in order that they might take means accordingly. 

2d. If your employers ask you the proofs of 


PRACTICAL DIRECTIONS IN THIS MATTER. 229 

what you say, give them, but keep back, if you 
can, the name of the guilty party. If that is 
impossible, give the name, but with pity and 
compassion for her or them, and begging that 
they may bo treated with indulgence. 

3d. Ask that they will find out for themselves 
and not take things on your word. Say you are 
willing to be watched as well as the rest, that 
you only wished to put them on their guard, and 
leave the rest to them. 

4th, If they desire to put you in the position 
of spying out and collecting evidence against 
the suspected person, refuse any such office; at 
least, unless the nature of your service obliges 
you to it. This is the only case in which it is 
your duty to act as a spy on others, and it is only 
duty that should be powerful enough to make 
you do any such thing. In your position, too, 
you can hardly keep yourself disinterested and 
peaceable, and calm enough to undertake such a 
thing; and your employers will, if they are 
reasonable, not insist upon it, but, rather, admire 
your conduct in declining it. Ask that what you 
have told may be kept secret, for you do not 
wish to be exposed to the enmity and persecu¬ 
tions that would fall upon you if it were known 
that you had given information about the matter. 

Good sense and prudence point out some such 
20 


230 PRACTICAL DIRECTIONS IN THIS MATTER. 

rules, in case you are bound in conscience to give 
information; and good sense and prudence will 
teach even the most ignorant how to proceed. 

A poor old negro man came to a priest 
not long ago. “ Father,” says he, “ I want you 
to advise me. You told me when I saw anything 
going to loss to tell massa. Now, the other day 
I saw something going to loss. I didn’t want to 
tell of anybody ; but my conscience told me I 
ought to tell massa something was going to loss. 
So, says I, massa, when you go around the farm 
and come to such a place, you just keep your eye 
skinned, and see if you don’t see something going 
to loss. So, massa, he look out bright, and see 
what was going on, and he hauled ’em up for it. 

“ Then they comes to me and ’cuses me of 
telling of ’em. And I says, I didn’t tell of any¬ 
thing. Now, did I do right ? ” 

What a wonderful prudence and charity this 
simple old man showed. Try and follow his 
example. 

Do not run, neither, to inform in an excess of 
zeal, when the matter is very trifling, and when, 
also, you have a mere suspicion without positive 
proof. You have charity to your fellow servants 
to exercise as well as charity to your employers. 
Guard against all malice and spite, and purify 
your motives, so that it may be a pure con- 


ON SPYING AND LISTENING. 


231 


science that actuates you, and that all may be 
done for God, and for God alone. 


CHAPTER LXI. 

ON SPYING AND LISTENING. 

It is not merely a thing of the utmost import¬ 
ance to be faithful in respect to the property of 
your employers, but also in regard to their char¬ 
acter and reputation. In order to do this, in the 
first place, you must be on your guard against 
idle curiosity, and keep your mind from desiring 
to know their secret affairs, as well as your eyes 
and ears from spying them out or listening to 
them. 

It is not merely improper and unbecoming to 
do so, but it is a sin. Their private and family 
affairs are their own. They expect no one to 
meddle with them. It is the same thing with 
regard to conversation with their friends and 
acquaintances, the letters they write, and so on. 
They would feel offended if they knew that you 
were curious enough even to pay attention to 



232 


ON SPYING AND LISTENING. 


such things ; and much more, if they knew you 
had taken any means to spy them out. It stands 
to reason, then, that it is wrong to do so ; and I 
know it is against the voice of your conscience, 
which warns you that you have no business with 
such things. 

Scripture tells us the same thing in the 
strongest language. St. Paul says : “ Por we 
have heard that there are some among you who 
walk disorderly, working not at all, but curiously 
meddling. Now we charge them that are such, 
and beseech them by the Lord Jesus Christ 
that working with silence they would eat their 
own bread.” 2 Thess. iii. 11, 12. 

It is no wonder the holy Apostle begs and 
entreats, for where there is this vain itching 
spirit of prying into other people’s business there 
can be little piety. When one is taken up with 
affairs of this world which are none of his bus¬ 
iness, what time or heart can he have for the 
great affair of his salvation ? When his head is 
full of the most useless and hurtful trash of other 
people’s, what room is there for the quiet and 
peaceable spirit of God ? The “ eyes of a fool 
are in the ends of the earth,” says the Holy 
Scripture. Prov. xvii. 24. 

This vain, idle spirit of curiosity leads to nu¬ 
merous sins. It leads to idle gossip ; it leads to 


ON SPYING AND LISTENING. 233 

detraction j it leads to quarrels and dissension ; 
it leads straight to the ruin of the soul, as it 
led our first mother, Eve, as we all know, to eat 
the forbidden fruit. Do not follow, then, your 
first mother Eve’s example, but put away all this 
itching curiosity. 

When you go up stairs to sweep, lay no curious 
eyes on anything which seems to contain a secret. 
Pry into no drawers or closets that arc kept 
closed. Take no inventories of articles which 
you have no concern with. When letters are 
lying about, do not read them. If they are open 
before you, rather tear out your eyes than do 
the mean, lowlived trick of reading them. 

Do not creep up, like a guilty thief, to listen 
behind doors, when conversation is going on. 
And, more than this, if you are where you can 
overhear anything private, go away, or make 
some noise which will give warning of your 
presence, so that such conversation may be con¬ 
ducted more privately. 

Do as you would do, if you were where you 
were likely to overhear a secret of the sacred 
tribunal of Confession. Stop your ears to all 
such things ; pay no attention to them when they 
are overheard. Have no time for such things, 
as the Apostle admonishes. “But we entreat 
you, brethren, that you abound more and that 
20 * 


234 


OBLIGATION OF SECRECY. 


you use your endeavors to be quiet and to mind 
your own business, and work with your hands as 
we have commanded you, and that you want no¬ 
thing of any man’s.” 1 Thess. iv. 10, 11. 

So will your time and all your mind be clear 
and free to abound more and more in the science 
and knowledge of Jesus Christ, who is a well of 
knowlege and of love, and goodness sufficient to 
occupy all your thoughts and satisfy all your de¬ 
sires. Ah! this is the curiosity—this is the 
study, which has no limit, which has nothing but 
what is lovely and pure and good in it. 


CHAPTER LXII. 

OBLIGATION OF SECRECY. 

This vain curiosity about the affairs of your 
employers leads by a short way to another very 
great evil, and that is, to revealing and making 
known to people abroad those things which 
ought to be kept in the house. A person curious 
enough to want to find out such things, will 
prove a leaky vessel. She will not rest until she 



OBLIGATION OP SECRECY. 


235 


has talked it over with her friends and acquaint¬ 
ances. Everything that goes on in the house 
will be made a subject of discussion. The con¬ 
duct of the mistress towards her husband, or his 
towards her; the conversations between them, 
or other members of the family, at the table ; 
what persons have visited the house, and what 
was overheard of their conversation ; the money 
affairs, courtships, spats and quarrels of the family, 
will all be retailed, like so many choice morsels, 
for the amusement of one’s self and friends. 

It may be, sins, or faults of character, will be 
spread about, dressed up in such a way that they 
have quite a different look from the reality. As 
Scripture says: “ And without being idle, they 
learn to go about from house to house ; not only 
idle, but tattlers also, and inquisitive, speaking 
things they ought not.” 1 Tim. v. 13. 

All this is wrong; it is a violation of that 
agreement which must always exist between 
masters and servants. When you entered their 
house, they committed to you, of course, and of 
necessity, many things relating to their private 
lives, and it was understood that these things 
were sacred ; not to go out of the house ; to be 
buried in silence. 

It was something like the agreement between 
the priest and his penitent. He says nothing 


236 


OBLIGATION OF SECRECY. 


about keeping what he hears secret, but it is as 
well understood as if he swore the most solemn 
oath. They said, perhaps, nothing about this 
duty not to repeat his advice or admonition, but 
it was as well understood as if they had. 

It is most necessary that it should be so. 
What mischiefs, what strifes, heartburnings, sus¬ 
picions and sins are not stirred up by such con¬ 
duct ! Such things spread from mouth to mouth, 
until a whole town almost is involved in num¬ 
berless sins of the tongue. Character is some¬ 
times destroyed, and life rendered a burden. 

As Holy Scripture says : “ The words of a tale¬ 
bearer are as wounds that penetrate to the in¬ 
most parts of the bowels. 77 Prov. xxvi. 22. 
Hear what the prophet says, speaking of differ¬ 
ent kinds of the wicked: “ Tale-bearers and 
slanderers have been among thee to shed blood, 
and they have committed wickedness in the 
midst of thee. 77 Ezech. xxii. 9. 

God abhors such conduct. “ Six things do I 
hate, and the seventh my soul abhorreth : Haughty 
eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent 
blood, a heart hatching evil thoughts, feet swift 
to run into mischief, false witnesses bringing out 
lies. 77 Prov. vi. 16. What is the seventh, that 
God abominates? Tim one who sows strife 
among brethren. Who is that one ? The tale- 


OBLIGATION OF SECRECY. 237 

bearer, the revealer of secrets. For if this were 
to cease, strife and enmity would cease also. 
“ When there is no tale-bearer, strife ceaseth.” 
Prov. xxvi. 20. 

But is it right, in any case, to reveal the sins 
or faults of those who employ you ? In answer 
to this question, I say that although as a general 
rule it is not right, there are some exceptions. 
Your own good, or that of another, may justify 
it sometimes. 

For example : If you have to leave certain 
employers, on account of their misconduct or ill 
usage, and your parents or relations, who have a 
right to know, inquire the reason, and you can¬ 
not conceal it without mischief, you could make 
known why you had to leave. 

Or suppose another girl intends to take ser¬ 
vice in a place where you have been living, and 
which is a dangerous one for her ; charity would 
require that she should be put upon her guard, 
and not allowed to run the risk of serious dam¬ 
age to her soul or her character. 

A great deal depends on circumstances. You 
should be careful not to reveal more than is ne¬ 
cessary, and to take into account the character 
of the parties to whom you reveal it, whether 
they be prudent and discreet, or light-headed 
and rattle-brained persons. 


238 


OBLIGATION OF SECRECY. 


Necessity is the only plea for speaking at all; 
and necessity must put the exact limit to what 
you speak ; otherwise you will run the risk of 
doing great wrong, and committing great sin. 

It is well to take advice of those competent to 
give it. Lay open the circumstances of the case, 
and abide by the advice given you. And, above 
all, lay the matter before God, and ask the Holy 
Ghost to guide you. 

Purify your motive, and say over and over 
again to yourself that you will, and intend to 
follow God’s holy will in the matter just as far 
as God shall enlighten you, and not depart a 
hair’s breadth from it. 

In this way you will be sure not to fail. If you 
make a mistake, it will be no fault of yours, and 
you will have before God the same merit and 
the same reward as if you had made none, for 
God looks at the intention rather than at the 
success and result of what you do. 


ON HOLY PURITY. 


239 


CHAPTER LXIII. 

ON HOLY PURITY. 

We now come to a subject of the highest im¬ 
portance as respects the eternal salvation of the 
soul, that is, modesty, or holy purity. St. Al- 
phonsus remarks that the greater number by far 
of the souls that are lost are damned in conse¬ 
quence of sins against holy purity; indeed, he 
says that all, probably, who come to their ruin, 
do so, in some way, through this vice. 

The greatest saints, the most holy men and 
women, have never felt themselves secure against 
it while life was in their bodies ; but have trem¬ 
bled with fears lest they should fall at last; and 
have watched over themselves with untiring vigi- 
lence to guard against any such fall. 

We are all of flesh and blood, all subject to 
temptation in this respect; and therefore it is 
most necessary for us all to be exceedingly watch¬ 
ful, and full of prayer to God, lest we also fall. 

Even St. Paul the Apostle, after unheard-of 
labors, and burning zeal, and wonderful prayer, 
says, he had to chastise and mortify his body, 
lest he should lose the fruit of his labor and be- 


240 


ON HOLY PURITY. 


come reprobate. 0, dear, precious souls, who 
really strive to love God, bear this in mind • be 
full of lively dread and horror of even the least 
immodesty. Regard it as a horrible monster, 
ready to devour you if you expose yourself in the 
least to its power. 

That was the way St. Aloysius considered it. 
When an immodest word was spoken at his 
fathers table by one of the guests, he turned as 
pale as death, and came near fainting. He was 
right; there was a danger to his immortal soul 
in that word greater than any other kind of dan¬ 
ger. His soul trembled at it, as we would 
shrink and tremble at the roar of a lion were we 
alone in a dark forest. 

Why must we regard it in this light ? I will 
tell you. We are required by the law of God 
to be perfectly chaste and pure, in thought, word, 
and deed. If we willfully and deliberately con¬ 
sent to any impurity in these respects, we commit 
a grievous sin ; and, of course, lose the grace of 
God. You see how strict the law of God is on 
one side. 

Now, on the other, it is needless to say that 
we carry about with us an inclination to this vice, 
and it will be impossible not to yield in the time 
of temptation, unless we constantly strive against 
it. 


ON HOLY PURITY. 


241 


How easy then is it to commit such sins! 
Truly, this vice must be regarded as a monster, 
with jaws wide open to destroy us. It is the 
very pit of hell which yawns wide at our feet, 
ready to swallow up those who do not watch 
their steps with the utmost precaution. 

Besides the danger of eternal ruin that at¬ 
tends this sin, it produces the most horrible de¬ 
struction of all virtue and goodness in the soul. 
St. Thomas of Villanova describes this well. He 
says : “ When this fire of lust possesses a man, it 
leaves nothing unconsumed. Although he may 
in his youth have been adorned with the beauty 
of every virtue, and like a paradise of God, 
shining with fragrant and blooming lilies, if 
once this fire penetrates within his heart, it 
burns, it consumes all, it reduces all to ashes, and 
changes him from an agreeable paradise to a hor¬ 
rid desert—from an angel to a beast.” 

There are some poisons which creep on, when 
they have once infected the smallest portion of 
the body, until they leave not a single part of it 
untouched ; they corrupt and destroy until every 
limb, every organ becomes a loathsome mass of 
rottenness, so that one would wish himself dead 
rather than be in such a state. 

This is exactly what this horrid vice does to 
the soul. All goodness, all virtue, all love of 
21 


242 


ON HOLY PURITY. 


God, all faith, hope, or charity, seem to be de¬ 
stroyed by it. As St. Gregory says, “ From lux¬ 
ury are generated blindness of heart, inconsid¬ 
eration, inconstancy, heedlessness, love of one’s 
self, hatred of God, supreme attachment to the 
present world, horror and desperation of the 
future.” 

Besides the loss of virtue, there is a most fear¬ 
ful loss of peace and happiness. The peace and 
joy of the pure mind is beyond all description. 
It is a fountain of pure living water, flowing from 
the heart, and making. everything around green 
and beautiful. 

Take a pure-minded young person, why, the 
very sight of the innocent mind shining through 
that modest countenance fills every one who looks 
upon it with delight. It is like Heaven beaming 
forth on this earth. There are many such poor 
boys and poor girls from Ireland, whom you love 
the moment you speak with them, for their inno¬ 
cence and purity of heart. But how this horrid 
vice destroys all happiness as soon as it has 
once got entrance into the heart! Where there 
was a paradise before, there is a hell now. All 
that peace of mind is gone, leaving distraction, 
confusion, and trouble, to take its place. 

Misfortune, sickness, pain, could not have made 
any such change, but immodesty can ; it can de- 


ON HOLY PURITY. 


243 


stroy all peace and love of God and joy in the 
soul, and leave nothing but sin and despair. 

It destroys oftentimes, also, one’s reputation 
or character, which is and ought to be dearer to 
us than any worldly goods. Who can live in 
this world with any pleasure when the finger of 
scorn is continually pointed at him ? Who re¬ 
flects that his disgrace is just; that by his own 
misconduct he has lost the right to the respect 
which virtuous persons possess. 

How often it has happened to happy, light¬ 
hearted young women, happy in the esteem and 
love of all around them, by yielding to the vice 
of impurity, to lose all this and become a perfect 
byword and reproach, wretched and miserable, 
through the loss of that good name without which 
life is a burden! 

Hold, then, this vice in entire abomination, 
and avoid it in every shape and every form. 
If you have unfortunately fallen into its power, 
rise up immediately from it, and put it all away 
even to the least remnant. In thought, word, 
and deed, maintain entire purity. Apply every 
remedy to get yourself out of the power of this 
sin. 


244 


ON EVIL THOUGHTS. 


CHAPTER LXIY. 

ON EYIL THOUGHTS. 

In the first place take care of evil thoughts or 
imaginations. Thoughts go before actions. If 
we did not first conceive evil in the mind, we 
should never commit it in deed. This is what 
the Scripture says : “ For from within, out of 
the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulte¬ 
ries, fornications, murders, etc. All these evil 
things come from within and defile a man. St. 
Matt. xv. 19, 20. 

We have no more right to indulge an evil im¬ 
agination or thought than to do an evil deed. 
As soon as we perceive, then, that our minds are 
dwelling upon a bad thought, we must promptly 
and firmly strive to drive it away, either by think¬ 
ing on something else, or by praying to be de¬ 
livered from it. For example : we may say, 
“ God, help me “ Far be it from me to think of 
such a thing f or, what is very good, we may re¬ 
peat devoutly the holy names of Jesus and Mary, 
or make the sign of the cross; that holy sign 
which recalls our hope of salvation, and our 
dread of all that will hinder it. 


ON EVIL THOUGHTS. 


245 


Many, very many I fear, have no proper idea 
of tlie sinfulness and danger of evil thoughts. 
They esteem them small matters. They are not 
small matters: they are very great and very im¬ 
portant. I may say, salvation depends upon 
them. 

We cannot be in the grace of God, we cannot 
have a hope of salvation, we cannot live peaceful 
or pious lives, unless we are set against all bad 
thoughts ; unless we are prepared to drive them 
from our minds as soon as we discover them. 

We cannot always hinder them from entering 
our minds, because our imaginations or fancies 
are not always in our power. They may enter 
in the twinkling of an eye. We may not even 
notice for a little while what we are thinking 
about; when, for example, we are perplexed or 
fatigued, or absent-minded. In that case we do 
not sin because we do not consent to wrong; but 
as soon as we do take notice and think : “ These 
are sinful imaginations; I must not indulge or 
take pleasure in themthen we must do as I 
have just said, put them out at once. By behav¬ 
ing in this way, such evil thoughts can do us no 
harm ; on the contrary, they become a great oc¬ 
casion of merit. 

Many pious persons, who hate and detest every 
sin of impurity, and every bad thought, are dis- 


246 


ON EVIL THOUGHTS. 


tressed and annoyed by such things coming in 
their minds in spite of themselves, and even im¬ 
agine they have sinned by them ; but as long as 
they hate and detest them, as long as they strive 
to put them out, their anxiety is entirely un¬ 
grounded. We have an instance of this in the life 
of St. Catherine of Sienna. Her soul was as¬ 
sailed by the most horrible temptations of the 
devil. They lasted a long time, but she resisted; 
and after the conflict was over our Saviour ap¬ 
peared to her with a serene countenance. “ 0, 
my Divine Spouse,” she said, “ where wast Thou 
when I was enduring these conflicts ?” “ In thy 

soul,” He replied. “ What! with all these filthy 
abominations?” “Yes, they were displeasing to 
thee ; this, therefore, was thy merit, and thy vic¬ 
tory was owing to my presence.” 

Do not endeavor to excuse such thoughts on any 
pretence whatever. Do not say they are natural; 
do not think of such things on the idea that you 
will marry by and by, but simply put them all 
out and keep them out. When you have closed 
the door of your heart, the enemy cannot find 
any entrance for evil. 


CUSTODY OF THE EYES. 


247 


CHAPTER LXY. 

CUSTODY OF THE EYES. 

If you will really guard your heart or your 
thoughts from evil, you must guard your eyes 
and your ears from seeing or hearing what is 
evil. The eyes are justly called the windows of 
the soul. Now, you know, if you stand gazing 
out of the windows you cannot help thinking of 
what you see : your mind will become filled with 
images and pictures of what your eyes behold. 
So, if you look on any impure sight to notice it, 
it will be sure to create evil thoughts in your 
mind. 

Perhaps, if you had the best will in the world, 
you could not entirely avoid every evil sight, 
because such things present themselves some¬ 
times suddenly to view; but in that case turn 
your eyes away immediately with horror, and no 
impression will be made on your mind. On the 
other hand, you can readily perceive, that to 
dwell on any evil sight, even for a short time, 
would produce a considerable impression, and be 
a very evil thing. 

For this reason, Job, that saint of God, says, 


248 


CUSTODY OF THE EYES. 


he made a covenant with his eyes not so much 
as to look upon a woman. Oh, what a virtue 
here is, to be so bent on pleasing our Maker, as 
to turn away instantly, not only from every evil 
sight, but from every dangerous object that may 
meet our eyes! Such faithfulness renders us 
very dear to God. 

But in order to acquire this mqdesty of the 
eyes, it is necessary to restrain them from look¬ 
ing at everything that presents itself; to have 
it habitually at heart to keep down an idle curi¬ 
osity to see everything. Downcast eyes accom¬ 
pany the chaste spirit, and indicate an inward 
purity. 

Women of true modesty do not gaze here and 
there fixedly, as they walk the streets, but look 
around, if at all, with a great deal of reserve. 

It is, indeed, a hateful and repulsive sight to 
see the airs of a vain or bold woman. Her 
whole soul shows itself in her dress, and walk, 
and eyes, as she goes along, sweeping the streets 
with her train, with a toss of her head and an 
affected walk, and her eyes gazing boldly about. 
Who feels anything but sorrow at the sight? 
sorrow that an immortal soul should be so per¬ 
verted from the intention God had in creating 
it; sorrow at the spiritual ruin betokened ; sor¬ 
row that a human being can become so debased. 


CUSTODY OF THE EYES. 


249 


Could such persons see the hearts of those who 
look at them, and readteach secret thought re¬ 
garding them, they would soon learn to despise 
themselves, and to change their demeanor. 

What looks well in a turkey, or a peacock, an 
irrational dumb beast, looks very ugly and unbe¬ 
coming in a woman with an immortal soul. Be 
careful, then, of your eyes, how you allow them 
to gaze about. 

St. Francis of Assisi once said to a brother: 
“ Come, brother, let us go out into the city and 
preach the Gospel.” So they went out and 
walked about a good while, and at last came 
back to the house without either of them speak¬ 
ing a word. On entering the house again, the 
brother said : “ Father Francis, I thought you 
said we were going out to preach, but here we 
are again without having opened our mouths.” 
“ Brother,” says he, “ we have preached a most 
eloquent sermon to all who observed us, by the 
modest and recollected way in which we have 
walked the streets of the town.” 

By the habit of modestly avoiding curious and 
fixed gazing in the streets, or out of windows in 
public places, you will avoid a thousand sights 
which would be dangerous to your souls, although 
you had no bad intention whatever in such 
gazing. 


250 


ON EVIL CONVERSATIONS. 


CHAPTER LXVI. 

OF EVIL CONVERSATIONS. 

All that has been said in regard to watching 
carefully the eyes, applies as well to the ears 
and the tongue. There is a vast amount of 
talk, which we may flatter ourselves is innocent, 
but which is extremely hurtful to the soul. To 
speak sometimes of beaux and getting married I 
suppose is unavoidable, and need not have any 
harm in it; but it would seem that girls can 
bardly get together without their conversation 
being entirely taken up with these things. If 
they are ever so long with one another, or ever 
so often, it would seem that this one subject 
never grows wearisome or gets worn out. 

“ Well, what harm is there in that?” A great 
deal. If nothing worse, it fills the mind with 
matters too engrossing and enticing to leave us 
free for the service of God. It is like setting 
up an idol in our hearts and falling down to 
worship it, instead of the living and true God. 
If God condemns the love of riches as idolatry, 
because it distracts and turns us aside from bet¬ 
ter things, much more must He condemn us for 


ON EVIL CONVERSATION. 


251 


allowing earthly love to occupy and take up our 
minds ; since this is a passion still more danger¬ 
ous and powerful to steal our hearts away from 
Him. 

Such conversations are likely to be hurtful 
and evil, even if they do not touch upon anything 
positively sinful, but how difficult it is to re¬ 
strain them within bounds! 

“The poison of asps” says St. James, “is 
under their lips.” The asp was a most deadly 
serpent, but very small, and his bite not painful, 
so that the person bitten was taken off almost 
before he was aware of his wound. 

It is this conversation about marriage, this 
joking and merriment about beaux, which in¬ 
flicts deadly wounds on the innocent soul so 
silently and quietly, that it is destroyed almost 
before it is aware of its danger. 

Keep your tongue from joining in such con¬ 
versations, and turn away your ear that they 
listen not, if you want to escape the infection and 
contagion which is all about. Imitate the con¬ 
duct of physicians who have to attend the sick 
in hospitals. They carry with them smelling- 
bottles, and the instant they perceive the evil 
odor of contagion, they strive to counteract it by 
breathing the perfume. Turn the conversation 
to something else, as cunningly as you can; if 


252 


ON EVIL CONVERSATIONS. 


you cannot do that, take no part in it, and do 
not listen to it, but lift up your souls in some 
short prayer to God to preserve you. Go away 
as soon as you can, so as to be removed from all 
danger. 

The Holy Scripture says, that for every “ idle 
word” we shall be called to judgment. Now, by 
“ idle words ” is meant, not innocent merriment 
and cheerful conversation which simply passes 
away time—for this has a good end, which is, to 
unbend the mind, and prevent melancholy and 
sadness, and to promote good-feeling and kind¬ 
ness—but just this kind of talk, which seems not 
so very bad at first sight, but which has the sting 
and poison of hell in it. 

And how is this talk often described? By 
such expressions as these : “ Oh, I have spoken 
a few pleasant words ; ” or, “ some funny words ;” 
or, “ a little joking ; ” or, “ a few double-meaning 
words.” What a fearful stupor of soul and 
deadness of conscience here is! 

“A few double-meaning words! ” These double- 
meaning words are two-edged swords. If you 
saw a little baby toddling about with an open 
knife in its little hands, you would spring with 
alarm to take it away. Here is a soul in blind¬ 
ness and darkness carrying a sharp sword of 
destruction for its own ruin. 


ON EYIL CONVERSATIONS. 


253 


Beware of double-meaning words against 
purity, they are worse in some respects than 
more vulgar and coarse ones; for the last disgust 
and repel us, while the former make a deep im¬ 
pression on the mind by their wit, and rankle in 
the heart, infecting it with filthy and unclean 
ideas. 

Show your displeasure plainly, as soon as 
you perceive that another is aiming to insinuate 
anything improper under the cover of a double 
meaning word. Sometimes a dead silence will 
be the best rebuke; or a sudden deafness may 
seize you. If the thing is repeated, you may show 
your displeasure more decidedly. There is gen¬ 
erally some shame and sense of decency even 
in the most hardened ; and if sucli attempts are 
put down in the outset, it may prevent a great 
deal of trouble and sin afterwards, and be the 
means of making such people more careful how 
they expose their own vulgar and coarse minds 
to public gaze. The wicked are and must be 
abashed in the presence of virtue and purity. 

Keep, then, a guard on your eyes, your ears, 
your m©uth, your hands, and all your senses, that 
you may be far from any occasion to sin against 
this holy virtue ; and God will give you great 
graces. 

Bemembcr the admirable answer once made 
22 


254 


OP MODESTY IN DRESS. 


by a king. King Roger kept Ins eyes under 
such complete control, that although constantly 
meeting people, for the space of three years it 
was observed that he never looked a woman in 
the face. A person who had observed this, asked 
him the reason, and got this reply : “ When a 
man does what he can, and avoids the occasion 
of sin, then God on his part does what He can, 
and preserves him from sin; but when a man 
rashly throws himself in the way of danger, then 
he is justly deserted by God, and permitted to 
fall into sin.” 


CHAPTER LXVII. 

OP MODESTY IN DRESS. 

There is an old maxim, that “fine feathers 
make fine birds,” and this maxim is always ap¬ 
plied with contempt to over-dressed women. The 
meaning seems to be about this : She has got a 
fine rig on her back, but very little sense in her 
head; she prides herself on her fine dress, but 
but there is little else to be proud of. 



OF MODESTY IN DRESS. 


255 


Modesty and simplicity in dress are great or¬ 
naments to a woman, and the woman whose 
heart is bent on serving God and gaining Hea¬ 
ven, must and will show this modesty and sim¬ 
plicity in her attire? Why? Simply because 
her soul is taken up with something more im¬ 
portant than dress. She remembers that she 
has been placed here on earth, an immortal soul, 
to accomplish her destiny by serving and loving 
God, and not like a wax figure in a shop win¬ 
dow, to be a machine to hang finery on. 

Her rule is rather that of the Gospel: “ Having 
food and raiment, let us be therewith content ; n 
and she bears in mind the words of the Saviour 
of the world: “ Be not solicitous for your life 
what you shall eat, nor for your body what you 
shall put on ; the life is more than the food, and 
the body more than the raiment.” Matt. vi. 25. 

Such was the idea of St. Frances of Rome. 
Of a noble and wealthy family, married to one of 
the most accomplished and prominent men, she 
was obliged, by her station, to wear rich and 
magnificent dresses, but it was always against 
her inclination. She would not act contrary to 
the wishes of her husband and his family, but 
she wore under her rich dress a habit of the 
coarsest and roughest material. At last, the 
grace and favor of God to her was so openly 


256 


OF MODESTY IN DRESS. 


manifested, that her husband told her that he 
would not stand in her way any longer, but that 
she should follow exactly what she deemed pleas¬ 
ing to God. For the rest of her life, she never 
wore any other gown than one of coarse green 
cloth. This would not have been right ordina¬ 
rily—for we must generally dress according to 
our stations in life, and avoid every singularity 
—but her holiness had become so well known, 
that it was proper in her case, and only gave 
edification to all who saw her. 

So it was also with St. Elizabeth, who was of a 
royal family. She took care to be dressed suit¬ 
ably and neatly, and was much admired for her 
simple and innocent grace of manner and dress ; 
but still it was observed that she avoided every 
possible display of ornament and unnecessary 
extravagance, and seemed to be entirely free 
from all that vanity and lightness so common to 
rich and beautiful young ladies of her class. As 
soon as misfortune came upon her, she gladly laid 
aside every vestige of her greatness, and clothed 
herself in the pporest and coarsest apparel. 

And there are now many ladies of fortune and 
high position, who, with the spirit of Catholic 
piety, while they strive to avoid singularity and 
remark, study to dress just as plainly and inex¬ 
pensively as possible. 


OF MODESTY IN DRESS. 


257 


What a contrast here is to the giddy girl 
who earns by hard labor a few dollars a month, 
and lays it all out on her back! who sets up for 
a lady, without either the education or the man¬ 
ners of one! 

You, maybe, have heard of the fable of the 
jackdaw and- the peacock. The jackdaw stole 
some of the peacock's feathers and stuck them in 
his tail, and then went strutting about among 
the peacocks; but as soon as he opened his 
mouth to make a noise, the cheat was discovered, 
and falling upon him, they picked him bare on 
the spot. 

So it is with these girls so fashionably rigged 
up : as soon as they open their mouths to speak, 
or as soon as you get a good look in their faces, 
you see at once how much out of place all this 
finery is. 


CHAPTER LXVIII. 

ADVANTAGES OF MODESTY IN DRESS. 

I do not mean to say that a gcpd and pious 
girl, who lives out, should dress either shabbily,, 
22 * 



258 


OF MODESTY IN DRESS. 


or much out of the prevailing fashion. That 
would be a mistake of another kind, and would 
attract unpleasant observation upon her, and be 
disedifying. But I mean to say that she should 
study to dress neatly, and modestly, and with 
economyj laying out as little of her earning as 
she can on dress ; avoiding expensive material, 
such as the wealthy can afford, and wearing that 
which becomes her better, and is at the same 
time far more suitable to her condition and her 
means. 

A prudent girl will understand what I mean. 
She knows that while she does not spend more 
than a quarter as much as some others, she can 
dress quite as well; nay, in better taste and 
keeping. 

Now let me speak of the advantages which 
such a course will procure those who follow it. 
Of course, the spiritual benefit to their own souls 
is the chief and greatest; but I do not wish to 
speak of that, as so much has already been said. 
It is also of very great advantage towards secur¬ 
ing a happy and prosperous life here. 

If a girl prefers to remain single, it will enable 
her to do a great deal of good ; and what purer 
source of happiness is there than that ? 

It may be ^she has dear relations—father and 
mother, brothers and sisters—who need her help 


OF MODESTY IN DRESS. 


259 


—and she, by her simplicity and economy in 
dress, can render them great assistance. What 
a delight it is to think of the happiness she has 
caused at home, when she gets a letter loaded 
with love and blessings from those who are so 
dear to her! Is not this far purer and sweeter 
than if, with cold-blooded selfishness, she had 
loaded all her money on her own back, to parade 
the streets and make a show of herself ? 

If she has no needy relations who require her 
help, she has the opportunity of doing something 
to help the wretched and afflicted poor ; to feed 
the hungry and clothe the naked ; and to receive 
the Lord's benediction in return, the same as if 
it had been done for Himself, according to His 
assurance : “ Inasmuch as ye have done it unto 
the least of these my brethren, you have done it 
unto me." St. Matt. xxv. 40. 

Our Lord Jesus -Christ showed once to St. 
Zita, in a miraculous manner, that He never for¬ 
gets this promise. 

One Christmas Eve, St. Zita was going out of 
the house to attend the first Mass. It was very 
cold, and her master insisted on her wearing 
his own warm fur cloak. The first thing she 
saw when she got to church was a poor man, his 
teeth chattering with cold, and moaning bitterly. 
She went up to him and asked him if she could do 


260 


OF MODESTY IN DRESS. 


anything to help him. He pointed to her cloak, 
and instantly she took it off her own shoulders 
and gave it to him, telling him to give it back 
after Mass, and she would lead him to a warm 
fire. When Mass was over, she looked for the 
poor man, but he was nowhere to be found ; and 
she had to go home without her cloak. 

Of course, her master was very angry, and 
scolded her without measure. All day she bore 
it with patience' until toward night, when a poor 
man appeared on the principal staircase of the 
house ; his countenance had a look of so much 
benignity, that every one who saw him was 
charmed. The fur cloak was in his hand ; and, 
in the presence of her master, he returned it to 
St. Zita, thanking her for her charity. 

As they were about to speak to him, he van¬ 
ished like a gleam of lightning, leaving in their 
hearts such joy and consolation, that they had no 
doubt that it was our Lord Himself who had ap¬ 
peared to them. 

There are many such examples in the lives of 
the saints, to show us that when in the spirit of 
faith we deny ourselves to relieve the poor, we 
receive the same blessing as if it had been 
the Lord Jesus Christ Himself who had come 
asking alms, and whom we had the happiness of 
relieving in his necessity. 


OF MODESTY IN DRESS. 


261 


If you do not relieve the poor, you may, in im¬ 
itation of St. Mary Magdalen, anoint our Lord’s 
feet with precious ointment. How can this be 
done? By contributing to the erecting and 
beautifying of churches and altars. The girls 
who live out have been called the church-build¬ 
ers, and it is a glorious title for them. Out of 
their hard earnings they have done so much for 
the glory and honor of God, and for the salvation 
of immortal souls, that God will never forget it. 

King David exclaimed : “ Dost thou see that I 
dwell in a house of cedar, and the ark of God is 
lodged within curtains?” 2 Kings vii. 2. And 
he gave his whole attention to provide for the 
erection of the Temple. 

So what a heartfelt pleasure it must be to the 
pious girl to deny herself something in dress, in 
order that the Lord of Glory may have more suit¬ 
able adornment in His House, where He dwells 
out of love to us! Surely it can be but little 
satisfaction to be bedizened out in the height of 
the fashion, and to see everything mean and un¬ 
suitable about the altar and tabernacle. 

But, maybe, the good girl intends, in God’s 
good time, to settle down in life as the head of 
a family. If her heart and soul are in dress, 
what kind of a husband will she be likely to get ? 
I fear a very poor stick, as they say ; some one 


262 


OF MODESTY IN DRESS. 


as giddy-pated and thoughtless as herself; prob¬ 
ably some dissipated young man, who is taken 
by mere outside show; for a more prudent and 
steady young man would think a good deal before 
he would make us his mind to take such a woman 
for a wife. 

He might be attracted at first, but he would 
say to himself: “ See here, before I go farther, 
let us see what a marriage with such a girl as 
this will be likely to bring me to. I can never 
earn enough to keep her in clothes, let alone the 
expenses of a family. Oh, no, she may be well 
enough to flirt with a little while, but I mean to 
look elsewhere for a wife.” 

Let us suppose, however, by unusual good for¬ 
tune such a girl gets a good husband. Now they 
start in life to maintain themselves and provide 
for the future. Had she been saving, she might 
have laid up a snug little sum that would have 
given him a good start in business or trade. As 
it is, he lias nothing ; and both of them are sadly 
put back, live in discomfort, and very likely will 
continue to do so the better part of their lives. 

Many a girl who has made quite a show in 
the way of fashionable dress, has settled down 
into the most slovenly and dirty wife, and has 
finally been glad enough to get the commonest 
rags to cover her back. 


OF MODESTY IN DRESS. 


263 


CHAPTER LXIX. 

OF MODESTY IN DRESS—CONTINUATION. 

Keep neat and take care of wliat you wear; 
make it last. Wliat matter is it if your bonnet 
or your dress is a little out of fashion ? Nobody 
notices it, and if they do, it is no matter. 

Study, then, simplicity and economy in your 
dress, for these things are suitable to your con¬ 
dition and station in life, and are pleasing to 
God. Avoid setting your heart on dress and 
fashion, for they will produce in your heart van¬ 
ity and self-love, that destroy the love of God. 
Hear what the Holy Ghost says of such things : 

And the Lord said: “ Because the daughters 
of Sion are haughty and have walked with out¬ 
stretched necks and wanton glances of the eyes, 
and made a noise as they walked with their feet, 
and moved in a set pace, the Lord will make 
bald the crown of the head of the daughters of 
Sion, and the Lord will discover their hair. In 
that day the Lord will take away the ornament 
of shoes, and little moons, and chains, and neck¬ 
laces, and bracelets, and bonnets, and bodkins, 
and ornaments of the legs, and tablets, and sweet 


264 


OP MODESTY IN DRESS. 


balls, and earrings, and rings, and jewels hanging 
on the forehead, and changes of apparel, and 
short cloaks, and fine linen, and crisping pins, 
and looking-glasses, and lawns, and head bands, 
and fine veils. And instead of a sweet smell 
there shall be stench, and instead of a girdle a 
cord, and instead of curled hair, baldness, and 
instead of a stomacher, hair cloth.” Isai. iii. 
16-24. 

Here it is not meant to condemn the use of each 
of these things separately, but to condemn most 
severely any inordinate and excessive following 
of wordly fashion. 

So St. Paul says : “ In like manner let women 
in decent apparel adorn themselves with mod¬ 
esty and sobriety, not with plaited hair, or gold, 
or pearls, or costly array. But as it becom- 
eth women professing piety with good works.” 
1 Tim. ii. 9. 

And St. Peter : “ Whose adorning, let it not be 
the outward plaiting of the hair, or the wearing 
of gold, or the putting on of apparel, but the hid¬ 
den man of the heart, in the incorruptibility of a 
quiet and meek spirit, which is rich in the sight 
of the Lord.” 1 St. Pet. iii. 3, 4. 

And in another place, the Holy Ghost says : 
“ Glory not in apparel at any time. Eccles. xi. 
4. St. John Chrysostom says on this subject: 


OF MODESTY IN DRESS. 


265 


“ The dancer, the prostitute, and the actor, wear 
more handsome and costly habiliments than you. 
Besides, you glory in a thing of the pleasure of 
which the moth may deprive you ; you glory in 
a thing which worms produce and destroy. Buy 
a garment woven above, a garment admirable 
and splendid, made of true gold : this gold is not 
dug from the earth by convicts, it is the product 
of virtue. Let us be clothed in that robe which 
is wrought, not by mechanics and slaves, but by 
the Lord Himself.” 

Avoid everything tending in the least to im¬ 
modesty in your dress, no matter if it be the 
fashion. It is never the fashion for modest 
women who fear God ; for such women never 
follow evil fashions. St. Chrysostom says of 
those who do so : “ They make a sport of the 
death of souls, merely to gratify a senseless pride, 
a pitiful vanity. They adhere to sin a thousand 
times more by the indecency of their apparel 
than by the voice.” 

Low-necked dresses and bare arms give an air 
of vulgarity to those who wear them, and provoke 
much remark which would cause the blush of 
shame to crimson the cheek of the modest. They 
cause mortal sin sometimes, more even than a 
more open and undisguised indecency, which 
would disgust by its coarseness. 

23 


266 


OF MODESTY IN DRESS. 


Consult, then, the Holy Ghost, listen to His 
voice in your hearts, and rather be too particu¬ 
lar than careless in so important a matter. 

To conclude, and to show you the difference 
between the pomp and splendor of the world and 
true Christian simplicity, let me give you the 
account of the journey of Melania, a noble Ro¬ 
man lady, to visit St. Paulinus at Nola. I will 
relate it in the very words of St. Paulinus him¬ 
self. But first I must tell you who Melania was. 
She was a noble Roman matron, possessed of 
immense riches, which were left at her disposal 
at the death of her husband, which occurred 
when she was only twenty-three years old. From 
that time she determined to devote herself to the 
service of God entirely, and she spent many 
years in the Holy Land, having sold her property 
and distributed it freely for the relief of the 
needy. At the end of these years she came back 
to Rome for a short time, to encourage her only 
son and her grand-daughter to devote themselves 
also entirely to Christ. It was on this occasion 
that she, her daughter-in-law, and grand-daugh¬ 
ter, made this pious visit to St. Paulinus. Now 
for the account: 

“ She hastened,” said he, “ to come and visit 
us, accompanied by her children in all their pomp 
and show. We saw the triumph of the glory of 


OF MODESTY IN DRESS. 


267 


the Lord in the different style and equipage with 
which the mother and her daughters (Albina and 
the young Melania) made the same journey. 
Their mother was seated on a poor lean horse, 
more worthless and meaner than an ass, but she 
was followed by proud senators, who walked 
surrounded by all the pomp which the grandeur 
of their position and their opulence could afford. 
The Appian way was not only covered, but com¬ 
pletely crowded and resplendent, with pavilioned 
cars and gilded carriages, drawn by horses su¬ 
perbly harnessed, and a very great number of 
chariots ; but the beauty of Christian humility 
far outshone all this vain display. 

“ While the rich admired her who; though 
poor, was holy, she despised their wealth. We 
there were witnesses in this humiliation of the 
proud world of that which God esteems, since 
we behold royal purple, and silk, and robes em¬ 
broidered with gold, humble themselves before 
the black and worn garments of serge. 

“We blessed the Lord, Who makes the humble 
wise, and in Whose sight true humility is a sure 
exaltation; Who filleth with good things and 
satiates with His holy viands those who hunger 
and thirst after His grace and justice, leaving 
the rich in their want.” 


268 


ON TRUTHFULNESS. 


CHAPTER LXX. 

ON TRUTHFULNESS. 

The prophet David cries out, in the 30th 
Psalm, “ Into thy hands I commend my soul, be¬ 
cause thou hast redeemed me, 0 Lord, thou God 
of truth.” Ps. xxx. 6. What confidence and 
childlike reliance on God is here, and what does 
it rest upon ? On the truth of the Almighty : 
“Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my 
word shall not pass away.” St. Matt. v. xviii. 
He is the eternal truth, and all our hopes and 
all our happiness depend on it, that he is so. 

So we say, “ 0, my Lord, I believe, because 
thou art the infallible truth.” Truth, then, and 
perfect truth in God, ought to be most dear to 
us. We should say frequently : How lovely is 
the truth of God. Thanks be to God that He is 
the perfect truth. The God of perfect truth, who 
cannot deceive in the smallest particular, has 
redeemed me ; praise be to His holy name. 

If this perfect truth and sincerity of God is 
the foundation of all our hopes in Him, a perfect 
truth and sincerity on our parts ought to corres¬ 
pond to it. Jesus Christ is the pattern, and we 


ON TRUTHFULNESS. 


269 


must be the copy. As St. Paul says : We must 
put off the old man “ who is corrupted according 
to the desires of error, and put on the new man 
who, according to God, is created in justice 
and holiness of truth. Wherefore, putting away 
lying, speak ye the truth every man with his 
neighbor.” Eph. iv. 22-25. The soul that de¬ 
sires to make her salvation sure, will begin by 
holding all lying in abomination. The lying 
tongue, says Scripture, is an abomination to the 
Lord, and so it should be to her. And she should 
make a thorough work of it, casting out all lies, 
small or great, and speaking the truth in all things. 

Some may imagine that it is enough to be care¬ 
ful and speak the truth in all matters of import¬ 
ance. It is not enough. We must speak truth 
in small, and great, in all things. And I will tell 
you the reason why. Sincerity is the basis and 
foundation of the Christian character, and lying 
and falsehood are directly opposed to this sincer¬ 
ity. Now a real sincerity of character will throw 
out all exceptions ; it will and must extend to all 
things. Just as the magnet draws to itself all 
the little bits of iron in its neighborhood, so will 
true sincerity of character draw all our little 
actions and words to itself and make them all 
sincere and truthful. 

You can all understand how if God could lie 
23* 


270 


ON TRUTHFULNESS. 


to us in any matter, however small, all our confi¬ 
dence in Him would be destroyed. In the same 
way if we find a person lying in small matters, 
we conclude there is no real and true sincerity 
of character there. 

The habit of lying in little things will bring 
on the habit of lying in great ones, for lying is 
a weakness and cowardice, a want of Christian 
courage, that basely and meanly gives up pleas¬ 
ing Jesus Christ, for fear of some man or woman 
who may be displeased. When this road is once 
entered upon it is travelled over very rapidly. 
You have given up to this cowardly fear in a lit¬ 
tle matter. You are more cowardly now than 
before and more ready to give up again. A 
greater thing comes up ; you are afraid to tell the 
truth, and lie again. So a little lie draws on a 
big one, and that another, until a habit of lying 
is formed, and God only knows whether it will 
ever be broken up. 

The worst of it is that this lying eats out and 
corrupts the whole character ; it extends to 
all kinds of things; as well to God as to man. 
If you deceive your neighbor, you will become 
deceitful and double-dealing in all your ways. 
You will begin to deceive yourself, and frame 
excuses for sin, and plaster it over until your 
own conscience is blinded by a false light. 


SCRIPTURE ON LYING. 


271 


And maybe this deceit and falsehood may cor¬ 
rupt and infect your heart to such an extent that 
your penance may be false also, and bring you to 
the bar of God unforgiven, when it is too late 
to repair the evil. 

Do not say, then, that any lie whatever is a 
small thing. It is the devil that prompts us to 
utter such maxims. He wants to throw a small 
cord around us, in order to bind us by and by 
with a strong and heavy chain. 


CHAPTER LXXI. 

SCRIPTURE ON LYING. 

It is in view of this nature of lying and these 
consequences which are so apt to follow, when it 
is allowed to go on in little things, that God so 
strongly denounces lying in the Scriptures. 

Lies are set down as coming all from the devil. 
“ When the devil speaketh a lie he speaketh of his 
own, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” St. 
John viii. 44. This shows in what detestation 
God holds lies. The devil is his great enemy, 
and lies are from the devil. 



272 


SCRIPTURE ON LYING. 


“ God hateth a lying tongue.” Prov. vi. 17. 
“ Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord.” 
Prov. xii. 22. Lying is said to be a chief char¬ 
acteristic of the wicked. “ The wicked are 
estranged and go astray speaking lies.” Ps. lviii. 
3. “ They delight in lies and curse inwardly.” 

Ps. lxii. 4. 

Now listen to the threats of God against lying. 
“ He that speaketh lies shall not escape.” Prov. 
xiv. 5. “ The mouth that speaketh lies shall be 

stopped.” Ps. lxiii. 11. “ But a lying tongue is 

but for a moment.” Prov. xii. 19. And, finally, 
“All liars shall have their portion in the lake that 
burns with brimstone and fire.” Apoc. xxi. 8. 
I could quote many others to the same effect, for 
there is no vice in the whole Scripture held up 
with such loathing and scorn. 

The good and holy have always had a great 
dread of this vice. So Job, that model of Chris¬ 
tian perfection, exclaims, “As long as breath 
remaineth in me, and the Spirit of God in my 
nostrils, my lips shall not speak iniquity, neither 
shall my tongue contrive lying.” Job xxvii. 2. 
Get this text of Holy Scripture by heart, and 
often pass it through your mind and often repeat 
it with your lips ; that your heart may be as en¬ 
tirely set against all lying as Job’s was. God 
will reward such a disposition with his richest 
graces. 


SCRIPTURE ON LYING. 


273 


A beautiful example is recorded of a holy 
bishop named Anthimus. He was willing to lay 
down his life rather than tell what many folks 
would be ready to call a small lie. It happened 
in this way. The Emperor sent out his soldiers 
to seize him and lead him away to death. They 
came to his house and found him at home. He 
received them with so much kindness, and enter¬ 
tained them so hospitably, that he completely won 
their hearts, so that they rose up to go, saying : 
“We will tell the Emperor we came here but 
could not find you.” “ No,” says he ; “ you will 
tell him no such thing. It is not right for a 
Christian to lie.” He made himself ready, ac¬ 
companied them before the Emperor and met his 
deatli by the stroke of the sword. 

That is the true love of Jesus Christ, not to 
say, Lord, Lord, I love thee, and go on lying, but 
to be willing to suffer loss or reproaches, as this 
good Bishop did, being ready to lay down his 
life rather than utter the smallest lie. 

Great rewards are promised for such holy dis¬ 
positions. Hear what St. John says of the one 
hundred and forty-four thousand who follow the 
Lamb whithersoever he goeth. “ These are pur¬ 
chased from among men, the first fruits to God 
and to the Lamb : and in their mouth was found 
no lie: for they are without spot before the 
throne of God.” Apoc. xiv. 4, 5. 


274 


SCRIPTURE ON LYING. 


Keep in mind, then, always, this exhortation 
of the holy Apostle St. Paul to all Christians. 
“ Lie not one to another ; stripping yourself of 
the old man with his deeds, and putting on the 
new, him who is renewed unto knowledge, ac¬ 
cording to the image of Him who created him.” 
And pray with King Solomon, “Two things I 
have asked of Thee, 0 Lord, do not deny me : let 
vanity and lying lips he far from me.” 


CHAPTER LXXII. 

THE DEVIL’S PRETEXTS FOR LYING. 

The devil is the father of lies, the parent of a 
numerous progeny of lies, which he stirs up in 
the hearts of those who give ear to him, and all 
the various pretexts and excuses which he in¬ 
sinuates, to hinder them from telling the truth. 
Now, as I have already told you of the malignant 
and poisonous character of lying, I must so lay 
bare all the roots of it, all the pretexts and ex¬ 
cuses for it, that you be on your guard against 
them, and destroy the very root of the matter. 



THE DEVIL’S PRETEXTS FOR LYING. 275 

Just as the doctor, when he has a cancer to 
cure, takes good care to cut out every root of it, 
and searches and probes down deep to find them, 
for fear, if any should remain undiscovered and 
alive under the flesh, the cancer might again 
gather strength and be worse than before. 

The first of these excuses arises from the desire 
to get rid of some pain or punishment we have 
deserved, most generally of a reprimand or scold¬ 
ing. A girl has been negligent of her duty. 
Her mistress goes down into the kitchen and 
finds a great heap of dirty dishes that ought to 
have been washed and put away long ago ; or 
the floor that she directed to be scrubbed, is in a 
filthy condition, while the girl has had abundance 
of time to do it; or the beds are not made up, 
late in the day; or the meals are behind time, 
or half cooked or burned, or many other things 
neglected which I cannot specify. 

Now, instead of an acknowledgment and a 
resolve to do better, there are a lot of lies ready 
for the occasion. She had such and such things 
to do, and was overburdened with work, or she felt 
very unwell, or the fire would not kindle, or the 
stove would not draw, or she had to go after this 
or that: anything, for an excuse. 

The mistress may be deceived sometimes, but 
she at last finds out that these excuses are a pack 


276 the devil’s pretexts for lying. 

of lies, and the result is, more ill-temper and 
vexation and scolding, and dismissal from the 
service, than if all had been frankly and sincerely 
owned and amended. 

“ I have found her careless and lazy, but she 
has one merit, she does speak the truth,” is w r hat 
the lady of the house will say of a truthful girl, 
and this speaking the truth will atone for many 
a shortcoming. 

Sometimes the lying is to cover up some injury 
to the property of your employer. You have 
broken dishes, or allowed something to go to 
ruin through carelessness. You think something 
may be deducted from your wages, or that you 
will be scolded, and you deny it. Have you not 
deserved all this ? Of course. Well, then, if you 
will not commit a double sin, own up and take 
the consequences, like a Christian, and not 
behave as a cowardly heathen would. 

“ Oh! but,” says the father of lies, “ it was but 
a small matter; what is the use of having a fuss 
about it ? I know she will scold hard if she knows 
it.” Say : “ Get behind me, Satan, I will own up 
and bring to naught all your tricks.” 

Let me tell you what happened once from tell¬ 
ing a lie about these small matters. The Em¬ 
press Eudoxia received the gift of a perfect and 
beautiful apple from her husband, the Emperor. 


THE DEVIL’S PRETEXTS FOR LYING. 277 

She sent it as a present to a sick nobleman, called 
Paulinus. The Emperor by chance found out 
that Paulinus had this apple, and being of a 
jealous disposition, he asked his wife what she 
had done with the apple he gave her. She, out 
of a cowardly fear of a little displeasure, instead 
of owning that she had given it away, said that 
she had eaten it. Her reply fixed the evil sus¬ 
picion so deep in the Emperor’s mind that Pau¬ 
linus was ordered to be slain, and the Empress 
was divorced, and sent away into banishment. 
So much for a lie about an apple. 

Sometimes the lie is to conceal a petty dis¬ 
honesty. You have taken some trifling thing 
for your own use, or given it away to your 
friends. You perceive that a sincere avowal 
and acknowledgment of this fault will not injure 
your character, or make you less esteemed, but 
the idea of shame puts you up to deny it, and 
tell many lies to screen yourself. How much 
better to come out at once with the truth, and 
ask forgiveness, being determined to be more 
particular in future. The shame you experience 
will be a powerful means to keep you from ever 
falling into the like fault again. You lie about 
these things to your mistress, and when it comes 
to more important things in Confession, the 
devil is all ready to suggest other lies. In the 
24 


278 the devil’s pretexts for lying. 

first place, the whole truth is not told; very likely 
the value is concealed, the thing is made light 
of, for shame or for fear of being made to re¬ 
store, and a lie is told to Almighty God. 

St. Peter said to Ananias and Sappira, his 
wife, You have not lied to man, but to God, and 
by God’s judgment for our warning they fell 
dead on the spot. How many lies are not told 
to God in the same way. Ananias brought the 
price of his field that he had sold, and laid it at 
the Apostle’s feet. But it was not the whole price 
as he pretended and said it was. 

So the girl comes to Confession and lays down 
her sin at the priest’s feet, but not the whole sin. 
There is a lie in that Confession. She is so in 
the habit of lying that she can’t tell a straight 
story even in Confession. Ananias had an ex¬ 
cuse for his lie which this girl has not. 

His money was his own and he was not obliged 
to bring one cent of it to St. Peter. St. Peter 
said to him : “ Whilst the field remained, did it 
not remain to thee ? and being sold was it not in 
thy power?” Acts v. 4. He told what people 
would call a simple lie, that injured no one. 
He, out of vanity, wanted to get credit for what 
he did not deserve—yet he heard these fearful 
words : “ Why has Satan tempted thy heart to 
lie to the Holy Ghost.” This most fearful ex- 


THE DEYIL^ PRETEXTS FOR LYING. 279 

ample of God’s judgment on lying was no doubt 
given as a special warning that lying in general 
is an evil thing, and especially when it comes to 
dealing with God in the tribunal of penance. 

Another troop of lies arises from a desire to 
screen others. “ I would not care so much for 
myself, but it is a good thing to get her off, or 
him.” No, let him or her manage their own af¬ 
fairs, but keep your soul clear of lying for them. 
To screen a friend may be well enough, if it can 
be done without sin. But you have no right to 
sin that good may come. 

This is the devil’s artifice to cheat souls. He 
holds out something which appears good, and says 
it is no harm to do so and so: “ Don’t you see 
what good you will do by it: the good is a 
great deal more than all the sin. Don’t be so 
dreadfully scrupulous; the world could not get 
on at all if folks acted on such principles.” Say, 
again, “ Get behind me, Satan, I will have none 
of your tricks.” 


280 


EXAMPLES OF TRUTHFULNESS. 


CHAPTER LXXIII. 

EXAMPLES OF TRUTHFULNESS. 

A bishop, called Firmus, that is, firm, but as 
St. Augustine says, more firm in his will to keep 
God’s holy commandments, when the Emperor’s 
bailiffs came to him, inquiring for a man whom 
the Bishop had hidden, replied: that he would 
neither betray the man to them, nor tell them any 
lie. They being pagans, tortured him severely 
and led him away to the Emperor, but the Bish¬ 
op’s sincerity and goodness made such an im¬ 
pression, that the Emperor, without any hesitation, 
pardoned the culprit at the Bishop’s request. 

Tell no lie under any pretext of good, or ap¬ 
pearance of humility, or of any other virtue. A 
venerable hermit, St. John of Egypt, was visited 
by a company of good men who desired to receive 
his holy instructions. He received them most 
kindly, and they begged his blessing. But he 
replied: “ Is there no one among you in Holy 
Orders?” They answered, “No.” The Saint 
then looked at each one in turn attentively, until 
he came to the youngest, when he pointed his 
finger at him and said : “ This one is a deacon.” 


EXAMPLES OF TRUTHFULNESS. 281 

Now, this was really a deacon, but lie had con¬ 
cealed the fact from a desire to avoid being 
honored by men whom he considered so much 
superior to himself in point of holiness. And 
out of this motive he denied it again. Now notice 
the conduct of St. John. He took the hand of 
the young man, kissed it to show his respect for 
his office, and addressed him in these words: 
“ Take care, my son, how you disavow the grace 
you have received from God, for fear a good 
thing may not cause you to fall into evil, and 
humility plunge you in lying ; for we must never 
lie, neither out of a bad motive, nor out of a good 
one ; for a lie does not come from God, but from 
the author of evil, as our Saviour has taught us.” 
An admirable instruction which you should never 
forget. 

A little boy of nine years of age gives us one 
equally good. This little boy had forgotten 
something his father had commanded him to do, 
and fearing a whipping, he began, as boys do, to 
cry. The servants asked him the reason, and 
made up a plausible lie for him to tell to clear 
himself before his father. “ Oh,” said they, “just 
say so and so, and you will get off; but if you tell 
the truth you will surely be well flogged.” The 
boy replied : “ It is better to be killed than to 
lie : let my father do what he likes; for my part, 
24 * 


282 


EXAMPLES OF TRUTHFULNESS. 


if I die I will tell no lie; how could I dare to 
appear before the Blessed Virgin after I had told 
an untruth!” 

Suppose then that you do succeed by these lies 
in escaping a scolding or a punishment, what does 
that signify? You have a guilty conscience. 
How can you appear with confidence before God 
in prayer? How can you ask the intercession 
of the Blessed Virgin or the saints who were 
such haters of all lying. 

You have saved your own interest, or your 
feelings, but have inflicted a great dishonor on 
God and a shame on his holy religion. “ That’s 
a Catholic.” “ That’s one that goes to Confession, 
but she don’t scruple to tell a lie when she finds 
it convenient.” “ Oh, she is very religious, but 
you can’t believe a word she says.” “ There is 
one thing about Catholic girls, they will lie 
and a host more of such expressions fly about. 
They are often unjust, but still I fear there is but 
too often truth in them. 

We may say it is very unjust to attack the 
church for the sins of her members ; but let the 
members bear in mind that such things will be 
said if they give occasion by their sins. 

In conclusion, then, be determined—out of the 
fear, and, much more, for the love of God, out of 
regard to our own souls, and for the honor of the 


WHETHER TO MARRY OR NOT. 


283 


church of Christ, and the good of other souls 
who see in you an example—“to put away the old 
man with his corruptions, and put on the new 
man who is in sincerity and truth and “ avoid¬ 
ing all lying,” resolve “ to speak the truth every 
man to his neighbor.” Eph. iv. 22-24. 


CHAPTER LXXIY. 

WHETHER TO MARRY OR NOT. 

We now approach a subject of the highest im¬ 
portance to the greater part of those at service, 
namely : that which relates to marriage, by which 
they attain a settlement for life. 

I suppose almost every girl at service gives 
this matter a good deal of attention, as her 
future well-being depends so much upon it, and 
therefore I think it worth while to say some¬ 
thing in respect to the way she ought to look 
upon it, and behave herself in regard to it while 
she remains at service. 

Marriage is a state of life instituted by God 
Himself, for the welfare, happiness and continu- 



284 


WHETHER TO MARRY OR NOT. 


ance of the human family. He has implanted in 
the heart, therefore, a desire for it, which induces 
the greater part of mankind on arriving at ma¬ 
ture age to enter into it. Young men and young 
women seek for a congenial and suitable com¬ 
panion with whom they can spend their lives 
in comfort and happiness. 

This state of life affords a young woman a 
permanent home of her own, in which she has a 
husband and children to love and care for. We 
must all have some one to love, and although it 
is true that the love of God is sufficient to fill 
the heart, and to fill it completely, yet God has 
willed that ordinarily the love of kindred should 
also solace us and make life more endurable. 

Now, our parents, brothers and sisters, or more 
distant relations, do not supply that love which 
the heart craves. They either pass away from 
this world and leave us behind, or are taken up 
with their own affairs and do not love us suffi¬ 
ciently, so that when God does not call to a 
single life, a nearer tie and stronger love is re¬ 
quired, which marriage can alone afford. God 
has said : “ Wherefore a man shall leave father 
and mother, and cleave unto his wife, and they 
shall be two in one flesh.” Gen. ii. 24. 

I am not surprised, then, that a girl at service 
should wish to settle herself in life by marriage. 


WHETHER TO MARRY OR NOT. 285 

She may be happy enough and well enough off, at 
the present, but she has to consider the future ; 
her life in middle-age, and when she is old. 

She may very well have a repugnance to being 
left alone in the world as she advances in life, 
and shudders at the dreary prospect. Or she 
may have a proper ambition to be her own mis¬ 
tress, the head of her own household, instead of 
remaining all her days at service, in an inferior 
position. 

Reflections of this kind naturally present 
themselves to her mind and induce a conclusion 
that if she finds a good opportunity she will get 
married, and I am sure I see no impropriety in 
such a determination. 

Still she should remember that there is an “ if” 
about it, and the matter does not lie in her own 
power. She may never find the opportunity to 
make a suitable match, and if she does not, it is 
a clear indication of God’s will that she should 
not marry, notwithstanding she may wish it. 

Remember the old saying: “ Matches are 
made in Heaven.” If you are to marry, God will 
provide a suitable match at the right time, and 
if He does not, you are to remain content with 
His holy will. 

From this I draw the conclusion that it is 
best for young women not to think too much on 


286 WHETHER TO MARRY OR NOT. 

this subject, particularly when they are not re¬ 
ceiving attentions which seem to point to an 
offer of marriage. 

I do not see what good can come of it, and on 
the contrary, a deal of harm. Thinking about it 
and talking of it will not bring it about any 
sooner. As soon as any anxiety to marry is 
perceived in a young woman, it produces a feel¬ 
ing of disgust in all who perceive it, and women 
who are supposed to be on the look-out for a 
match are commonly avoided. A natural mo¬ 
desty and reserve are far more attractive. 

Again, you may become unhappy and discon¬ 
tented by dwelling on such thoughts. You 
become by them dissatisfied with God’s provi¬ 
dence concerning you, and a murmurer against 
Him, and entirely lose your tranquillity of mind, 
without which, you cannot make progress in 
holiness and God’s love. 

But there is far greater danger—the danger 
of losing your innocence and purity of soul. The 
devil is ready to mix with what is proper and 
right, that which is unfit and sinful. By dwell¬ 
ing anxiously on this matter of marriage and 
thinking too much about it, you expose yourself 
to very great danger of falling into sin. 

My advice then is, that without thinking 
much about it, you commit the whole matter to 


WHETHER TO MARRY OR NOT. 


287 


God, begging Him to take care of you, and pro¬ 
vide for your future life as shall seem most 
fitting in His eyes. 


CHAPTER LXXV. 

CONTINUATION. 

But on the other hand, there may be girls 
who are disinclined to marry. They find them¬ 
selves very well contented in the single life, and 
do not wish to change their condition. They 
dread the cares and responsibility which they 
know to follow from the state of marriage, and 
choose to retain their freedom. 

Some may be influenced principally by consid¬ 
erations of piety. They see in the single life 
greater opportunities to serve God than they 
think they would find in a married one. They 
fear that they will be too much taken up by the 
cares of a family and not be so much at liberty 
to devote themselves to piety and religion. 

As St. Paul says: “ And the unmarried wo¬ 
man and the virgin thinketh on the things of the 



288 


WHETHER TO MARRY OR NOT. 


Lord that she may be holy both in body and 
spirit, but she that is married thinketh on the 
things of the world how she may please her hus¬ 
band.’ 7 1 Cor. vii. 34. 

They bear in mind the examples of the Blessed 
Virgin and of so many of the saints who have 
consecrated themselves to God in holy virginity 
and feel inclined to follow in their footsteps. 

Now, I would advise these, not to be too hasty 
in making a conclusion, and above all to avoid 
anything like a rash vow or promise to God in 
reference to it. 

There is plenty of time and no need of haste. 
Notwithstanding such feelings, you may not 
know your own mind or the will of God, and 
there is no need of entangling yourself by any 
rash proceeding. 

I have known many, who seemed fully deter¬ 
mined to remain single, who, on getting a good 
offer, have changed their minds and accepted it. 
If they had in a moment of fervor made any rash 
vow or promise on the subject, it would have 
been a serious detriment to them, and, perhaps, 
been a subject of regret all their lives. 

And, sometimes, God’s holy will may be differ¬ 
ent from what it seems to us at first sight. We 
have an instance of this in the case of St. Frances 
of Rome. She had a very strong desire to live 


WHETHER TO MARRY OR NOT. 289 

the life of a nun, but her father wished her to 
jnarry and promised her to a nobleman of the 
city. She shed many bitter tears, but on praying 
earnestly and consulting pious and holy advisers, 
she became fully convinced it was God’s will for 
her to marry. She did so, and in this state of 
life she became a great saint. 

Whether, then, you feel on the whole inclined 
to marry, or to remain single, keep perfectly 
tranquil, and do not let your mind dwell much 
on the subject, being ready to follow God’s will 
when He shows it to you more clearly by sending 
you an opportunity of marriage. 

Then you can consider more particularly 
whether you should avail yourself of it or not. 

In making up your mind, you can consider, 
first, your own circumstances ; how you feel 
inclined; your habits; your disposition, and 
other things which ought to be considered in 
your case : secondly, the character of the other 
party; his moral character, his disposition and 
temper, his ability to maintain you : in short, 
whether you will find it for your spiritual and 
temporal advantage to take him for a husband 
or not. Pray to God to direct you with an 
earnest desire to follow His will. After this, 
decide reasonably and quickly what you conceive 
to be best, and afterwards do not allow yourself 
25 


290 


WHETHER TO MARRY OR NOT. 


to be troubled, for you have followed the will of 
God in regard to you, and could not do better 
than that. 

In general you are the one who will have to 
make a decision for yourself, as you know your¬ 
self and your own circumstances better than any¬ 
body else can know them ; but it may be you have 
a prudent person who knows you well, and whose 
advice may be of assistance to you, in that case 
it would be well to ask advice. 

You know the maxim, No man can judge in 
his own case. If you suspect passion is running 
away with you, and blinding you to your real 
interest, the judgment of a sincere friend, who 
will not flatter, may be of the utmost importance 
to you. 

Now let us suppose you are one of those who 
do not intend to marry, who have pretty much 
made up your mind to put away all advances on 
the subject, you ought to regulate your manners 
accordingly. There ought to be a special reserve 
and modesty about you. To invite attention, to 
run about freely in the company of young men, 
to joke and banter, in short to act as if you had 
no such determination, is to sail under false col¬ 
ors. It is to hold out expectations that you do 
not intend to fulfill. Let there be then a corre¬ 
spondence between your interior disposition and 


GREAT NEED OF PRUDENCE. 


291 


vour external manners, tliat you may not lead 
others astray and yourself into a grievous snare. 


CHAPTER LXXYI. 

GREAT NEED OF PRUDENCE. 

On our coast, which is so stormy and danger¬ 
ous, there arc many safe harbors where the mari¬ 
ner feels secure against the violence of every 
storm. But when he approaches these harbors 
he is wide awake and pays the closest attention 
to every movement of his vessel; and good rea¬ 
son he has for it too. Here is a shoal on this 
side, there is a ledge of rocks on the other, here 
the channel takes a short turn ; at no time of his 
whole voyage is there so much danger of ship¬ 
wreck as now. He must not relax his vigilance 
an instant until he drops anchor in the very spot 
where he will remain. 

So it is when about to anchor one’s self for life 
in the state of matrimony. The whole approach 
to this state is filled with the greatest danger, 
and requires untiring vigilance to get through it 



292 


GREAT NEED OF PRUDENCE. 


safely without a wreck of happiness in this world 
and the next. 

And this danger is greater it seems to me in 
this country and at this time than at any other. 
Why ? Because in other countries the intercourse 
between young people is more restrained and 
guarded than it can be here. It is there settled 
by custom that they shall not visit so often, or be 
so much together as is the case here. The pa¬ 
rents or friends have far more to say and to 
arrange there, while here more depends on the 
parties themselves. Many a girl has no father 
or mother to look out for her and advise her. 
She has to manage everything for herself the 
best she can. On all these accounts, far more 
discretion and prudence is required on the part 
of a young woman in this country than anywhere 
else. 

There is a peculiar modesty and shyness which 
springs up in the heart when one changes from 
the state of childhood to that of womanhood. 
No doubt God has given this to be a safeguard 
at the most dangerous period of life. When one 
could, as a light-hearted innocent girl, speak and 
act with freedom, she must, as a young woman, 
keep an eye upon all her actions, that nothing 
may go beyond the bounds of propriety and be a 
snare to herself or to others. 


WHAT INTIMACIES TO FORM. 


293 


Many women of this age moving about in the 
world are forming acquaintances and intimacies 
more or less close, and their entire future depends 
upon what they are. 

Let us lay down, then, a few rules of prudence 
as to how she should conduct herself in that dan¬ 
gerous period of life, which extends from the time 
of her arriving at mature age until she is mar¬ 
ried. 

Let us see what intimacies it would be prudent 
for her to form, and how she should behave her¬ 
self during the period of the courtship. 


CHAPTER LXXVII. 

WHAT INTIMACIES TO FORM. 

Be careful what acquaintances you make. 
There are many young men of pleasing appear¬ 
ance, but who are demons in heart*. Keep a 
guard, then, that you do not allow your feelings 
to get too much interested before you have time 
to make some kind of a judgment whether to 
allow an intimacy to be formed. 

25 * 



294 


WHAT INTIMACIES TO FORM. 


If you discover a heart filled with bad and im¬ 
pious principles, one that is a proud scoffer at 
religion, or seems destitute of religious principles, 
i. e., an infidel, whether he goes by the name of 
Catholic or not, avoid such a one. 

There are plenty of such, real infidels at heart. 
They smooth it over when they want to marry 
some Catholic girl, who would be shocked at a 
plain open avowal of their sentiments, and when 
the marriage is over they conceal it no longer, but 
take delight in ridiculing religion ; in destroying 
the faith and love of their wives ; and if they 
have families, in ruining their immortal souls. 

Now these girls who marry such men, and who 
pay for it by the bitterest tears, perhaps for their 
whole lifetime, had they only exercised the slight¬ 
est prudence, had they prayed to God and not 
been blinded by their own silly and unreasonable 
passion, would have noticed enough in their man¬ 
ners and conversation to have put them on their 
guard, and they would have sooner cut off their 
right hand than to have united their fate for life 
and death with them. 

Says St. Paul: “ Bear not the yoke together 
with unbelievers, for what participation hath jus¬ 
tice with injustice. Or what fellowship hath 
light with darkness. And what agreement hath 
Christ with Belial,” i. e., the devil. 


WHAT INTIMACIES TO FORM. 295 

Again : If you discover a want of moral prin¬ 
ciple, that the person is the slave of any grievous 
sin, be on your guard, think not to take such a 
person as your partner for life. If the young 
man drinks freely, and gets intoxicated, and there 
is a real danger that he will turn out a drunk¬ 
ard, for God’s sake, and your own soul’s, form no 
intimacy with such a one. What are you going 
to marry for ? A quiet, peaceful home, and the 
opportunity of furthering your salvation. 

The drunkard’s home you well know is a pic¬ 
ture of hell on earth, with its everlasting strife, 
disorder, burning passions, and hatred. Is that 
the school in which you expect to learn the way 
of salvation ? 

I speak of this sin of drunkenness because it is 
the bitter root from which all kinds of vices and 
horrors may be expected to grow. There is no 
need of giving examples. 

If you live in the city, go into the next street, 
or if in the country, go a short distance in your 
neighborhood, and you can find examples enough. 
Who is that bloated, coarse-looking woman who 
has not, apparently, combed her hair for a week, 
with a lot of ragged children bawling, and fight¬ 
ing, and cursing around her in her miserable, 
dirty hovel. That was, a few years ago, a pretty, 
modest girl, who was innocent and light-hearted ; 


296 


WHAT INTIMACIES TO FORM. 


earning an easy living in a quiet, pleasant family, 
and attending to her duties regularly and with 
great delight to her soul. 

She has not been to Mass for nearly a year, 
and cannot go, she says, “ because her husband 
puts her about so.” She wishes she was dead 
and gone* for her life is a burden to her. 

And it was all her own fault. She knew 
enough about him, when he was paying her at¬ 
tention, to put her on her guard. When he came 
to see her she smelled liquor in his breath re¬ 
peatedly. Sometimes he showed quite plainly 
that he was under its influence, but she shut her 
eyes. “ Oh,” she said, “ I don’t believe it is as 
bad as it looks.” She did believe it, however, 
but she would not acknowledge it, for she had 
made up her mind to marry him. 

Then friends came to warn her : “ Don’t you 
know that young man is a drunkard ? It is quite 
certain, and everybody knows it. You will rue 
the day you take him for a husband.” She got 
obstinate, forgot God and even her own plain, 
good sense and reason, and was determined to 
take him at any rate, even if she should lose her 
soul in consequence. 

Ah, poor woman! I am afraid it will come to 
that, for your life is sinful, and there is little 
probability of its ever being changed for the 


OF MIXED MARRIAGES. 


297 


better. Such examples speak a loud warning to 
you to teach you to avoid the misery of marrying 
a drunkard. 

In the same way, if you discover any other con¬ 
firmed vice, such as dishonesty, or impurity, do 
not let your acquaintance run on to an intimacy ; 
do not let yourself get entangled, or think for a 
moment of marriage with such a one. 


CHAPTER LXXYIII. 

OF MIXED MARRIAGES. 

The question may be asked whether a Catho¬ 
lic young woman should in any case marry a per¬ 
son who is of a false or heretical religion. Cases 
may occur in which a really good and consci¬ 
entious girl gets an offer of marriage that seems 
in all respects a good one, with this one excep¬ 
tion, that the person is not a Catholic, and she is 
embarrassed as to what she should do. 

A difference of religion between husband and 
wife is no doubt a great source of unhappiness 
in the marriage state, and a great evil. The 



298 


OP MIXED MARRIAGES. 


want of sympathy in that which is the nearest 
and dearest to the heart, must be a painful draw¬ 
back to the love they should cherish towards 
each other, even if it does not lead to positive 
disagreement. The difficulties likely to arise in 
regard to the education of the children are great, 
even if the father does not interfere. His ex¬ 
ample cannot fail to influence their ideas and con¬ 
duct, and to put an obstacle in their way. On 
all accounts it is exceedingly desirable that a 
Catholic wife should have a Catholic husband. 

But it may happen that a Catholic young 
woman may not have an opportunity to marry in 
her own religion. She may never have an offer 
of marriage from a Catholic, who has the char¬ 
acter and qualities likely to ensure her happi¬ 
ness, and of course she cannot marry any one 
unless he has. 

She receives an offer from a Protestant of good 
character and disposition, who is agreeable in all 
respects except his religion; should she reject this 
offer? 

This depends on circumstances. In the first 
place, he is bound by the law of the church to 
solemnly promise you the free exercise of your 
religion, and that all the children of the marriage 
shall be brought up Catholics. If he refuses to 
make these arrangements, you are bound to let 


OF MIXED MARRIAGES. 


299 


him go. You should not entertain the matter a 
moment; for how can you make a contract in 
which you give up a part of your duty to God ? 
You are bound to see that your children are edu¬ 
cated in the one true faith—and there can be but 
one—and you have no right to place them in cir¬ 
cumstances which expose them to the risk of 
losing it. 

Here is a case for showing your true Christian 
principles and courage. You may have to sacri¬ 
fice your inclination, or, in a degree, your worldly 
prospects, but the martyrs of old laid down even 
their lives cheerfully for Jesus Christ’s sake. 
Depend upon it, our Lord will not overlook any 
sacrifice you make for him, nor fail to reward you 
abundantly. 

If the person is willing to make the promises, 
inquire further whether he is strongly and blindly 
attached to his religion, and prejudiced against 
yours. If you find that such is the case, do not 
trust his promises. They will not be kept. 
Misery and ruin will follow such a union. 

Do not trust that he will be converted. The 
prospect of it is too remote to build upon. The 
chance is that you will give way in a cowardly 
spirit, and act against your conscience, and that 
the children will follow his example rather than 
your own. 


300 


BEHAVIOR DURING COURTSHIP. 


There are plenty of examples of unhappy 
mothers who have dragged out a miserable ex¬ 
istence during their whole life, because they 
could not control their children, whom they loved 
so much, or see any prospect of their eternal sal¬ 
vation. Far better remain single than marry 
with such a prospect before you. 

But if you see a candid, reasonable disposition 
in the one who solicits your hand, without preju¬ 
dice against your religion, or at least, without 
unreasonable prejudice which the truth cannot 
remove, and all is right in other respects, I would 
not like to stand in your way. 

Be well assured that you are not deceived in 
these respects, and take time enough to make a 
safe decision. Pray to God for guidance, and 
take advice, and then decide the matter as seems 
on the whole the best and the most prudent. 


CHAPTER LXXIX. 

BEHAVIOR DURING COURTSHIP. 

Now let us suppose an acquaintance has been 
formed and has gone so far that the subject of 
marriage is seriously thought of, it becomes a 



BEHAVIOR DURING COURTSHIP. 301 

question of grave importance what kind of con¬ 
duct one ought to observe. 

Visits are frequently received, and it is easy 
to perceive that an interest in one another 
has been awakened. The young man says to 
himself, “ That is a fine young woman; I like 
her much, and perhaps I could not do better 
than to ask her for a Avife.” And the young 
woman says, “If he should propose, I am not 
sure it would not be the best thing I could do to 
accept him, as he really seems very amiable and 
suitable:” 

That is all very well; but the devil will try 
and take his advantage, and mix up with what is 
holy and good his suggestions of evil. You are 
frequently in each other’s company. It would be 
better if some one was present at the same time. 
And when young women can so arrange it, they 
ought to strive to have some discreet companion 
in the room. 

For example, one living at home should prefer 
that her parents, if they are good, should be 
present, or a brother or sister, as it shuts the 
door on all danger of undue familiarity, and 
of many temptations which would creep in. 

If living out, and other girls are in the house, 
it would be as well that they should be present 
during these visits. 

26 


302 


BEHAVIOR DURING COURTSHIP. 


But it will often happen that there is no suit¬ 
able person who can be present, and you must re¬ 
ceive these visits alone; be careful that the most 
exact modesty and propriety is observed. 

Now is the time when you have need to recom¬ 
mend yourself frequently to God, with a sincere 
and entire intention to maintain perfect purity 
in thought, and word, and deed. There is danger 
that evil thoughts will insinuate themselves in 
your heart, but be more ready now to drive them 
out at once, than ever before. 

Fly to God immediately, and say, “ My God, 
my God, preserve me, I desire with my whole 
heart to remain in thy love, and by thy grace I 
am determined that I will.” 

It would seem to the world impossible to main¬ 
tain purity at such a time, but it is not impossi¬ 
ble, indeed it is easy, if you really desire to love 
God and are constant to beg his grace. Just as 
it was easy for God to shut the lions’ mouth when 
Daniel was cast into their den, so that they could 
do him no harm, while he remained there with as 
much peace and tranquillity of soul as if in his 
own retired chamber. 

It will be half the battle, as they say, if you 
are determined, at the very outset, to keep clear 
of every sin, and this determination will prepare 
you for every temptation that you may encounter. 


BEHAVIOR DURING COURTSHIP. 303 

If the young man is truly and sincerely pious, 
and has sentiments of the same kind, there will 
not be much difficulty. You have need of prayer 
and watchfulness, of course, as the devil is always 
on the lookout to ruin even the best and holiest 
souls; but with these, I may say, there is no 
danger. 

Do not allow visits, however, to be protracted 
to a late hour of the night. When the family 
retire to rest, let that be the signal for you also 
to do the same. Say at once, it is time to close 
this evening’s visit, and to shut up the house. 
This may be done in a playful, cheerful manner, 
that will give no offence, and will cut off at once 
a world of difficulty. If the family keep very 
late hours themselves, then appoint a reasonable 
hour of your own, and when it arrives, say in the 
same way, that it is time to retire, and bid good¬ 
night. Or say, that it is a rule with you not to 
allow a visit later than such an hour, for you 
need the time, in justice to God and to your em¬ 
ployer. To sit up late defrauds God of his 
prayer, and renders you unfit for your duty the 
next day. This late visiting has been the devil’s 
means- of ruining thousands on thousands of well- 
disposed, good young women. The slightest re¬ 
flections will cause you to see the evil of it your¬ 
self. 


304 


BEHAVIOR DURING COURTSHIP. 


Now let us suppose the young man who visits 
you is not one of a thousand, so pious and well- 
disposed, but less impressed with the idea of 
keeping a good and pure conscience, following 
passion sometimes, even though grievously offend¬ 
ing God. Now what may very likely happen ? 

In the course of conversation some w'ords of 
double meaning, some insinuations which are not 
exactly proper, covered up, it may be, under the 
idea of marriage, or under the cloak of affection. 
How does it become you to meet them? With 
great prudence. 

If very slight, treat them as if you were en¬ 
tirely unconscious of them, and speak of some¬ 
thing else, that you may show that you feel above 
taking any sort of notice of such things. 

If the things said are too plain to be passed 
by, show yourself offended at once ; say you are 
surprised at such talk, and never wish it to be 
repeated again. 

By a decided conduct you may, once and for all, 
put a stop to everything of the sort, and make 
him see the evil of his conduct. Even a very 
bold and bad man is cowed down and made 
ashamed by a woman of real, heartfelt modesty. 

Alas, many young women do not act with this 
reserve. Some improper remark is made, and 
they laugh, and show themselves pleased, per- 


BEHAVIOR DURING COURTSHIP. 


305 


haps make an equally improper reply, and the 
matter goes on now without much regard for God 
or care for sin. The heart is infected, and though 
prudence and fear of shame may restrain from 
certain shameful crimes, grievous sins are com¬ 
mitted without number, the purity of the soul is 
gone, and the flame of hell is lighted up, which 
must be quenched by a bitter repentance, if ever 
quenched at all. Kissing and immodest freedom 
follow unchaste words, and in many cases ruin 
and disgrace and crime of the deepest character 
follow along after that. No one can tell what 
may be the final result of such a beginning. 


CHAPTER LXXX. 

CONTINUATION. 

But, says some one: “ A young man came to 
see me and kissed me, and used some familiarity 
toward me—it was not very bad.” Why did 
you permit it? “I like him very well, and did 
not wish to offend him.” Has it occasioned you 
any willful evil thoughts ? “ I don’t know exactly • 
I think not.” 

26 * 



306 


BEHAVIOR DURING COURTSHIP. 


What a deadness of conscience here is. If 
such things have repeatedly happened, as is often 
the case, we may be quite sure there is sin, and 
abundance of willful evil thoughts. The devil 
has deceived such a one. I am quite sure there 
cannot be a real peace of conscience under such 
circumstances. You may cry, “ Peace! peace !” 
to yourself, “ but there is no peace.” 

“ But the young man whom I love will be dis¬ 
pleased if I stop such familiarities ; he will leave 
off visiting me, and I shall lose my opportunity 
of marrying one that I like.” 

Do not be so certain of that. No matter how 
vicious a man may be, he does not like to have 
an immodest woman for a wife. A man courts a 
young woman with the idea of marrying her— as 
the acquaintance goes on, he begins to love her— 
now he has an idea it is a great thing to steal a 
kiss, as he says. He attempts with some rough¬ 
ness and freedom, and finds a lack of womanly 
modesty in the way it is received ; that she is as 
willing to be kissed as he is to steal the kiss. 
Now, what is the result. He says : “ By George! 
that girl is a little bit too free to please me. It 
is agreeable enough to go see her, to amuse my¬ 
self and pass away the time, but I rather think I 
will look elsewhere for a wife. I want my wife 
to be of another sort.” Some have even gone so 


BEHAVIOR DURING COURTSHIP. 


307 


far that they have determined to do their utmost 
to tempt and try any one they had an idea of 
marrying, being willing enough to commit sin, but 
determined never to marry any one who was not 
virtuous enough to resist their wicked attempts. 

But suppose the time of courtship has been 
spent in this sinful way, and yet all goes on and 
marriage takes place : what then ? The founda¬ 
tion of a jealous and unhappy married life has 
been laid during this courtship to bring forth 
its bitter fruits. 

The wife may be quite innocent, but the hus¬ 
band is suspicious. “ Oh, I know / 7 he says, “ how 
she behaved when I was courting her; if she 
could sin so easily then, why not now ? I have 
not that confidence I should have had had she 
showed herself more discreet and prudent at 
that time.” 

This suspicion may arise from anything really 
immodest, though it may not have gone very far, 
for the virtue of a woman is of such a nature that 
but little confidence is placed in it when circum¬ 
stances show that immodesty has taken possession 
of the heart. 

Do not say, then, “ The young man I love will 
desert me if I put a stop to these familiarities.” 
He will do no such thing, if he be a young man 
worth having, but on the contrary, he will con- 


308 


BEHAVIOR DURING COURTSHIP. 


ceive a great respect and esteem for you. Your 
conduct, if such as it ought to be, will cause him 
to be determined to secure such a prize as he 
esteems you to be, for his own : for all true real 
love must be founded on respect and esteem. 

But if on your rebuke, given in a decided way, 
though mildly at first, he leaves you, say, “ good 
riddance, you are no great loss.” Thank God 
for delivering you from being bound for life to 
such an unsuitable companion. 

Say then, when an improper familiarity is 
attempted : “ Hands off ; never dare lay a finger 
on me again ;” “ You have entirely mistaken the 
person,” or some such thing. Show that you 
are offended ; if the offence is more gross, leave 
the room, and let no doubt remain on his mind 
that you are deeply offended. 

A wise and prudent girl may forgive such an 
offence once if she sees sincere regret for it, but 
not when it has been repeated. If, after sufficient 
warning, the same conduct is repeated, break off 
the acquaintance. 

When such things are allowed to go on, what 
is the consequence ? Sin and crime. Shame 
and disgrace. The poor girl is deceived, and, 
finally, left ruined and heart-broken, deserted by 
her false lover to bewail the consequences of her 
own folly. 


BEHAVIOR DURING COURTSHIP. 


309 


Another great abuse which happens sometimes 
is that of taking evening walks. Instead of sit¬ 
ting down to talk, the affair is carried on walk¬ 
ing in the streets. And opportunity enough the 
devil has to put forward his temptations. It 
is improper. Very rarely, and unless you have 
confidence in the person, allow yourself to be ac¬ 
companied even from one house to another, but 
avoid all wandering around for the sake of con¬ 
versation, if you would not expose yourself to 
the greatest danger. 

What I have said in regard to this perfect 
propriety and modesty during courtship, applies 
to every day and every hour of it, from its begin¬ 
ning until the marriage takes place. Some are 
so stupid as to think that as soon as they have 
given their troth to another they can behave 
with less propriety. They say, “We are to 
be married so soon there is no need to be so 
particular.” That is not true. The obligation 
to entire purity in thought, word, and deed, is as 
strong as ever, and God is as much offended by 
your violating it as if you had made no such 
engagement. 

And when you are engaged to marry, the mar¬ 
riage should not be too long deferred. Long 
courtships are a great temptation, and give rise 
very often to sin, which would have been avoided 


310 


BEHAVIOR DURING COURTSHIP. 


had they been shorter. Why put off the mar¬ 
riage, when you have determined upon it ? It is 
giving room to the devil to practice all his arts, 
either to break up the engagement or to lead 
you into sin. There may be reason for a certain 
delay; but, as a general thing, it is better to 
marry, notwithstanding some inconvenience, than 
to defer it. 

Your happiness in the married state depends 
in a great measure on the way you conduct your¬ 
self during the courtship. You expect to receive 
a sacrament. You ought then to prepare for it. 
Holy and pure motives ought to govern you, and 
pure and holy conduct precede it. How can you 
expect God’s blessing on the marriage when you 
have been provoking his anger by a long course 
of sin. 

Those who do prepare well, who watch over 
their conduct carefully, that it may be pleasing to 
God in all respects, during their courtship, re¬ 
ceive a great blessing. They have disposed 
themselves for grace, and in the sacrament they 
receive a great grace, to live happily, to love one 
another truly and sincerely, and to be a help to 
one another to secure at last the happiness of the 
saints in Heaven. 

Bear these things in mind, and make up your 
minds that you will be among those who draw* 


THE RIGHT IDEA OF MARRIED LIFE. 311 

down an abundant grace from Heaven, rather 
than of the number who foolishly and thought¬ 
lessly rush into this holy state without prepara¬ 
tion, without prayer, and without any proper 
idea of its immense importance to their whole 
happiness for this world and for the world to 
come. 


CHAPTER LXXXI. 

THE RIGHT IDEA OF MARRIED LIFE. 

Many take an overstrained and false view of 
matrimony, which leads to great unhappiness 
afterwards. They are of a fanciful disposition, 
fond of building castles in the air, and overlook¬ 
ing the realities of life. 

Besides, they have heard many highly-wrought 
stories and legends of princes and princesses, of 
lords and ladies, of village girls and their ad¬ 
mirers, who were dying of love to one another. 
The lovers are, of course, perfection itself. The 
young man is tall and handsome ; the young wo¬ 
man fair and beautiful. He is noble and gener¬ 
ous ; she has every amiable quality of woman. 



312 THE RIGHT IDEA OF MARRIED LIFE. 

In short, two such mortals could not be found 
anywhere else in the whole world. 

They go through all sorts of trials for one an¬ 
other. He is ready to die a dozen times for her 
sake, and she is ready to make away witli herself 
quite as often when the course of true love does 
not run smooth. After a wonderful series of ups 
and downs, and astonishing surprises, all comes 
out right, they get married, and that is the last 
we hear of them. 

This is the stuff we get in novels and romances, 
and it has turned many a poor girl’s head and 
ruined her happiness. Novels represent marriage 
as the end of our existence. It is not so. God 
is the object and end of our existence. Novels 
represent a husband as in the place of God to us. 
It is not so. The love of a husband cannot fill 
the heart. It is only God’s love that can do 
that. 

If you place your supreme good and happiness 
in the love of your husband, you will be sure to 
be disappointed. Trouble and anxiety will be 
mixed with it, and death will be likely to knock 
your idol to pieces. 

If you imagine you are going to live like two 
angels together, seeing only perfection in one 
another, and admiring all you see, I rather think 
you will be mistaken. Lovers are blind; they 


THE RIGHT IDEA OF MARRIED LIFE. 313 


liide their faults and show only their amiable 
qualities ; they are not willing to see faults when 
they are only too plain, but by and by there will 
. be plenty of time to find out the truth and no 
motive for concealment. 

He comes to see you in his Sunday’s best, his 
shoes shining and his hair brushed and oiled ; by 
and by his face will look dirty and coarse, his 
hair all disorder, his clothes begrimed with dirt. 

He talks soft and delicate now; by and by 
you will hear harsh sounds out of his mouth. 
“ Why haven’t you done this ?” “ Why don’t you 
do better?” and perhaps things a great deal 
worse. 

He was ready to die for you awhile ago, but 
you find he lives a great deal more for himself 
than for you. You find him cross and disagree¬ 
able, lazy, perhaps, and shiftless, selfish and dis¬ 
sipated, provoking and inconsiderate ; in short, 
you discover many things which you did not 
dream of before. 

And I dare say you will show many traits of 
character which he did not see before, and which 
will require a good deal of forbearance to put up 
with. 

People who form great expectations are apt to 
get disappointed ; and the higher one’s hopes, the 
more cruel the disappointment. Young people 
27 


314 THE RIGHT IDEA OF MARRIED LIFE. 

whose ideas of marriage are of the fanciful kind, 
gotten out of novels, who imagine that married 
life is a perpetual courtship, or honeymoon, that 
love is going to prevent all that is disagreeable, 
that love will supply bread and butter, keep the 
children from crying, or the weather pleasant, or 
get the dinner, or make the beds, will sometimes 
find themselves cruelly undeceived. 

Their ideas are false and they cannot be real¬ 
ized. Now comes the danger. They give way 
to the disappointment. They begin to hate where 
they thought they loved. Bickering and dissen¬ 
sion set in. After awhile they live pretty much 
like cats and dogs, and there is no remedy but a 
separation,—a miserable remedy, which is di¬ 
rectly in the face of the solemn promise they 
made to God to take each other for better or 
worse. 

If they had looked at the matter in its true 
light, there would have been no disappointment. 
Their chief happiness would not have been placed 
in one another, but higher, in God our only True 
Good. They would have had something to fall 
back upon in case of disappointment. 

They would have expected many and great 
faults of character in one another, to be borne 
patiently and put up with, and have been pre¬ 
pared for the worst. 


OF THE MARRIAGE CEREMONY. 


315 


When a couple love one another in God and 
for God—which is the only real true love worth 
having—God’s grace is sufficient for them. All 
looks different. They learn to respect one an¬ 
other, to make each other happy, and increase in 
love every day. 

Look at marriage then in this light. Put away 
fancy and look at the reality, and pray God to 
give you his true light, to see things as they are, 
and for grace to act accordingly. 


CHAPTER LXXXII. 

OF THE MARRIAGE CEREMONY. 

When all has been settled, and the day ap¬ 
pointed, take care that all shall be arranged in 
a manner suitable to the importance and holiness 
of the sacrament which you then receive. 

Marriage is not merely a state of life instituted 
by God, but a sacrament. The union of man 
and woman represents the union of Christ and 
his church, and therefore it is a sacred thing. 

You should regard it in that light, and prepare 



316 


OF THE MARRIAGE CEREMONY. 


for it with as much care as you would prepare 
for your communion. There are special reasons 
for not neglecting this. The happiness and well¬ 
being of your life, and very likely of your eter¬ 
nity depend upon it. You need special grace, 
and all you can obtain, to sanctify it. Think of 
these things a good while beforehand, and pray 
frequently and fervently. 

Look at the matter in a spiritual point of view, 
and purify your intention, looking only to the 
will of God, and how you may be able to serve 
Him better. 

We have a beautiful example of this in Scrip¬ 
ture, in the case of Tobias and Sara. They spent 
three days in devout prayer that God might sanc¬ 
tify their marriage. “ For we arc the children 
of the saints,” said they, “ and we must not be 
joined together like the heathens that know not 
God.” Tobias viii. 5. 

Have the laws of the' church in regard to the 
publication of the banns observed. These laws 
are wise and good, intended to prevent persons 
who have no right to marry one another from 
attempting it. Many an unfortunate girl has 
been deceived into an unlawful marriage because 
the banns were not published. 

If there is no danger whatever of such a thing 
happening to you. never mind, get your banns pub- 


OF THE MARRIAGE CEREMONY. 


317 


lisliecl. Uphold God’s laws and set a good ex¬ 
ample to others. Do not ask a dispensation un¬ 
less you have a solid reason for it. It is no good 
reason because you do not like to be published. 

Why should you go about your marriage in a 
stealthy and secret manner ? You are not going 
to steal any one’s property ; you are not going 
to do anything mean or dishonorable; on the 
contrary, you enter an honorable state, one wor¬ 
thy of respect among all men, as Scripture says : 
“ Marriage is honorable in all.” Heb. xiii. 4. 

Let all things about the wedding be proper 
and suitable. Avoid idle display and useless 
extravagance in regard to dress. See that all is 
proper about the entertainment, if there is one. 
In short, draw down God’s blessing on the mar¬ 
riage by your care that there shall be nothing to 
offend Him in the way you enter upon it. So 
may you hope to continue it in happiness and 
make it a great means for your eternal salvation. 


27 * 


318 


HOW TO BEHAVE IN SICKNESS. 


CHAPTER LXXXIII. 

HOW TO BEHAVE IN SICKNESS. CONCLUSION. 

Before closing this book I wish to say a few 
words on how a good girl should look upon sick¬ 
ness, and behave herself in it. 

Sickness, like everything else which God allows 
to befall us, is intended for our good. If we take 
it in the right spirit it will prove an immense 
advantage to us. 

Sickness affords us an opportunity to practice 
many virtues in a high degree, particularly those 
most excellent ones of humility and patience. 
When stretched upon the bed of sickness, we feel 
how helpless we are of ourselves, and how com¬ 
pletely we depend on God for health and strength 
and every breath we draw. We cry to Him and 
He hears us, and helps us. Sickness is a time of 
grace. 

What an opportunity it gives us for patience 
amid so many pains, and privations, and wants. 
If we did but know, it is just the time to be like 
our Lord Jesus Christ as he was hanging, so 
racked with torment, and so afflicted, upon his 
cross for our redemption. 


HOW TO BEHAVE IN SICKNESS. 


319 


Particularly is this the case with a poor girl 
who lives out, when she is taken clown by sick¬ 
ness. Among strangers, with no kind mother at 
hand to take tender care of her, how forsaken 
she must feel herself at such a time! 

She is working for hire, and when she gets 
sick, her employers very likely think far more of 
their own loss of her services than of her condi¬ 
tion. She lacks that attention and kindness that 
they would pay one of their own family. She 
cannot expect those delicacies and that constant 
nursing that near relatives would be likely to 
give her. 

Indeed, in most cases, she will be obliged to 
be removed elsewhere, and to provide for herself 
as best she can, for it cannot be expected, or re¬ 
quired, that her employers take care of her. 

They have agreed to pay her wages in return 
for service, and of course, when she cannot afford 
that service, she becomes a burden upon them, 
and in justice has no more claim to be taken care 
of than any other person. Besides, in many cases 
it is quite out of the power of her employers to 
take so great a burden upon themselves. 

On all these accounts, sickness is, to the girl 
who lives out, a great trial, and a great oppor¬ 
tunity to practice heroic virtue. 

Let her then, in such case, place all her hope 


320 


HOW TO BEHAVE IN SICKNESS. 


and all her confidence in God, in our Lord Jesus 
Christ. Let her accept all as coming from his 
hands, for it is the truth, His blessed hands have 
held out this cup for her to drink, as a most salu¬ 
tary and good medicine for her soul. 

Let her not be satisfied with accepting it, but 
keep thanking Him for it, and saying to herself 
that it is the very best thing for her, and that she 
would not have it otherwise than as God wills. 

Now is the time for patience, to keep down all 
murmuring and dissatisfaction. No doubt there 
will be temptation to murmur, but put it all 
aside, fo^ God is as good now as ever, and it is 
wrong now as ever to complain of what you can¬ 
not help and He has allowed. 

If the family where you are cannot help you, 
go willingly elsewhere. Do not indulge in use¬ 
less hard feeling. Consider all right, and look 
only at the Divine will. 

If they care for you, be very grateful, and 
thankful for what you had no right to expect. 
Do not, in any case, be fretful and impatient 
after any want of attention, or if anything you 
need or desire is wanting. Remember how our 
Lord needed a little water to moisten His tongue 
as He was hanging upon the cross. 

Some girls, when they get sick, particularly if 
they are not used to it, show a deal of impatience ; 


HOW TO BEHAVE IN SICKNESS. 


321 


they give a great deal of unnecessary trouble, 
and show an unthankful spirit in regard to what 
is done for them. This is certainly quite the 
wrong spirit, and one that renders such a girl 
very unhappy herself and displeasing to God. 

But on the contrary, I must say, the examples 
of holy patience and peace under affliction, on 
the part of others, is oftentimes most beautiful; 
all who witness it are charmed and edified by it. 
What stores of merit such a girl lays up for her¬ 
self and for others! 

She really preaches the Gospel of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, and does much to save souls, for 
her example is more effectual than perhaps the 
words of the most eloquent preacher can be. 

You cannot do much in sickness in the way of 
set prayers and devotions, but you can do a great 
deal in the way of patience and resignation. 
You can do a great deal in the way of short, fer¬ 
vent ejaculations, such as, “ Thy holy will be 
done “ Grant me patience “ Praise God for 
His goodness or many others of the same sort. 

You can offer yourself to God entirely, giving 
up your life, if it be God’s will, cheerfully into 
His hands. For the rest, ke,ep as quiet and 
cheerful as possible, putting away all temptations 
and troubles of whatever sort they may be, and 
trusting entirely to God and our Lord Jesus 


322 


HOW TO BEHAYE IN SICKNESS. 


Christ just as an infant reposes with confidence 
in the arms of its mother. 

So, if it be God’s will, this blessed time of sick¬ 
ness will land you safe on the shore of eternity, 
to enjoy forever, and with joy unspeakable, the 
sight of God, the society of Jesus Christ, of 
the Blessed Virgin Mary, and of all holy saints 
who have “ fought the good fight of faith,” and 
received the immortal crown of victory. 

And, now, I must bring my work to a close. 
I have done my best to teach yon those principles 
of religion and virtue which will ensure you a 
happy and joyful life here, and the rewards of 
eternity. 

It has cost me much labor and reflection, but 
I have been glad to give it, because I know it 
will be appreciated by grateful hearts. May 
God smile upon it. May the Blessed Virgin 
Mary and the saints take it under their protec¬ 
tion. 

And if any good girl shall find herself bene¬ 
fited by reading this book, and the love of God 
increased in her heart, I beg she will not forget 
the author in her prayers, but beg of God for 
me, that I may lead a good life here, with a 
single eye to his glory, and attain everlasting 
life hereafter. 

God bless you all. 

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